Section the third

1. Section the third Questions? Tylers@stanford.edu

2. Agenda • By now you should feel pretty familiar with: • The basics of what the “lexicon” is • The IPA (ask me for more practice exercises if you want em) • Various features of sounds (for consonants: place of articulation, manner of articulation, voicing; for vowels: high/low, front/back) • Finding patterns by using these features • Today we’re going to: • Quickly review some phonetics/phonology vocab • Get started on grammar • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAgRgy1I8hg • We’ll especially be looking at “zero copula” and “aspect”. • Take a look at the R&R 109-122 and Green 34-75 for other grammatical features in AAVE • Especially “absence of 3 sg ‘s’ (who can guess what that means?) • Absence of possessive ‘s • I done had enough (all over Fences)

3. Phonology vocab quiz! • Give an example of these things: • Metathesis • A monophthong • Consider the word shelf • How do you write it in IPA? • What’s the onset? • What’s the coda? • What’s the nucleus?

4. Copula vs. auxiliary • How would you define copula and what’s an auxiliary? • Here are some sentences, which are copula uses and which are auxiliary uses of the verb to be? • I am very proud of you. • The bicycle was taken to Stern. • You were told to come here by noon. • He was told to come here by noon. • Cows are stupid. • She was unique. • It is always the best policy to speak the truth—unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar. • He could be famous if he worked harder. • Robin is often writing poetry. • Extra credit 1: Frank looks happy. • Extra credit 2: The future will be better tomorrow. • What do we mean by an inflected form of the verb?

5. Some definitions • Copula: from Latin ‘fasten’ (uh, also related to copulate, which might be a good memory trick). This is a word that binds the two parts of a sentence together. He is a poser means that whoever he is, that same exact person is a poser. • Auxiliary verbs (or “helping verbs”) go in front of OTHER verbs, so: • You did go (did) • I am listening (am) • We have spoken (have) • They can see (can) • I must be crazy (must) • They will come over later (will)

6. So what are the rules in AAVE for copulas? • Let’s say you observe the following sentences. • When I be driving… • People crazy! • You were a thousand miles away. • He been doin it since we was teenagers, and he still doin it • I’m gone! • How we gon get home? • He runnin’ • He be runnin’ • What’s your first step?

7. Divide it into groups • Maybe something like • “Missing a word” • People crazy! • and he still doin it • How we gon get home? • He runnin’ • Everything else • You were a thousand miles away. • When I be driving… • He been doin it since we was teenagers, I’m gone! • He be runnin’ • What’s next?

8. Describe what’s happening • “Missing a word” • People crazy! • Are • and he still doin it • Is • How we gon get home? • Are • He runnin’ • Is • Everything else • You were a thousand miles away. • Were…well, that’s the past tense • When I be driving… • “Something tricky going on here.” (You’re going to have to look at this more.) • He been doin it since we was teenagers, • Been…sort of expressing past tense again • I’m gone! • Am…well, that’s the present tense and none of the “missing a word” ones have that • He be runnin’ • Similar to that “When I be driving” sentence above.

9. Make a hypothesis • First hypothesis: “You can drop is or are” (you could be more specific, too, how?) • “Missing a word” • People crazy! • and he still doin it • How we gon get home? • He runnin’ • Everything else • You were a thousand miles away. • When I be driving… • He been doin it since we was teenagers, • I’m gone! • He be runnin’ • Now you go out and get some more data…

10. Get more data • First hypothesis: “You can drop is or are, whether they are copulas or auxiliaries.” • Then you collect: • He’s talkin’… • They’re wanderin’ ‘round • So your hypothesis isn’t specific enough, what would make it better?

11. In fact… • With AAVE you can delete both copular and auxiliary uses of is and are, but they don’t delete at the same rates. • That is, there is “variation”. • What Professor Rickford showed at the end of class was that in Jamaican English (but NOT in AAVE), you can delete any copula: • Me crazy is okay in Jamaica (but it gets a big not-okay-asterisk in AAVE)

12. Missy be • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjIlocYE_Wc • Missy be a freak, • Missy be a mack, that's a true fact

13. Invariant be • Standard English has some invariant be, meaning that you don’t inflect it (into are/you/is/am/were/was/etc). • Be good is invariant be (you never yell at someone *Are good! Don’t are naughty!) • After an auxiliary, you have to use it, too He must be here never *He must is here. • But there are some other kinds that don’t show up in standard English. • Well, if I be the winner, I be glad – this indicates future or hypothetical situations. You can think of the ‘ll or will being absent. • When I be driving – this is habitual use we talk about the most. • This is AAVE’s “showcase variable”. You use invariant be in certain ways and I know you’re doing an AAVE-thing.

14. Appendix

15. Aspects of aspect • You know what past tense is, it’s easy—it marks something that happens in the past. • But there are other ways of looking at time. In fact only 50% of the world’s languages mark tense, but 74% of them mark something called “aspect”. • BIN doesn’t do that, remember that She BIN married means that she got married a long time ago and is still married. • Habitual be is also about aspect, not really tense. • Tenses, in the core case, locate the events that sentences represent in time. This is to be contrasted with the internal "temporal contour" of the event, which is specified within the aspectual system. (Hornstein 1993: 9) • For example: • Perfectivity indicates the view of a situation as a single whole, without distinction of the various separate phases that make up that situation; while the imperfective pays essential attention to the internal structure of the situation. (Comrie 1976: 16) • If it’s momentary—or perceived as momentary, one chunk, it’s perfect I visited Ethiopia last summer or Ted walked his dog. • If it’s habitual or continuous, it’s imperfect: Ted walked his walked his dog every day, I have an extra chair in my office.