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feature list and the entire book, a landmark in the study of African American English (or, AAE,
the term most used nowadays) that has served as an essential reference in the AAE section of my
bookshelves and, I am sure, those of others in the field. Landmark works continue to inspire long
after they appear. As will be seen in reading this chapter, my own thinking on the AAE verb
phrase, has been pushed into a new area as a result of rereading Johnâs work.
The first chapter of Rickford 1999a is entitled âPhonological and Grammatical Features of
African American Venacular English (AAVE)â; and, it is the one that I will be referring to. I
should note first off that I will be using grammar in the sense, unlike that of Rickford 1999a, that
encompasses phonetics through semantics and pragmatics,1
in keeping with the most common
usage today. Additionally, I will not deal with phonetics and phonology, though they both
certainly deserve close attention. Space limitations prevent me from doing so; and, I believe they
would be best handled from a quantitative, variationist perspective in their own chapter. This
leads to another point, which is that below I discuss features qualitatively, with some few
comments on variation.
Extending the list has been no simple task. We have learned much about AAE since the list was
published; and, as the discussion below will make clear, we still have much to figure out about
the grammatical forms of AAE. Simply to review in a coherent fashion the forms discussed in
this chapter has required significant analysis and reanalysis.
Any discussion of African American English (AAE) requires a clarification of terms. When
Rickfordâs book was published in 1999, AAVE was commonly used to refer to what is today
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usually referred to as AAE or African American Language (AAL). In using these two terms
today, AAE and AAL, the vernacular nature of most AAE varieties that have received the
most scholarly attention is de-emphasized. No doubt, underlying these two more recent
terms is a wish to further destigmatize AAE/AALâto the extent that âvernacularâ may
attach stigma to it. Additionally, there is currently more widespread recognition that there
are varieties of AAE that we may characterize as âstandard,â or âmainstream,â on the same
basis that we characterize as standard non-African American English varieties (Spears
2015). The term AAE conveniently embraces to both standard and vernacular (i.e.,
nonstandard, the term used before vernacular came to be preferred).
AAE, now usually written without a hyphen between African and American, is also
sometimes called Ebonics and Black English. The term African American Language,
however, requires a few comments since it is nowadays being used more frequently. The
great bulk of studies of AAE have focused on a particular type, the vernacular or
nonstandard type (see below), usually spoken by those of lower incomes and less formal
education, whose use is often frowned upon in educational settings. I continue to use AAE
rather than AAL since AAL should refer to any African American language, not simply the
variety of English that has been vastly more studied than any other African American
language varietyâAAE.
More specifically, AAL should cover, not only AAE, but also non-English varieties that
have been spoken by African American communities since well before Emancipation from
4. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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slavery, e.g., those speaking Cape Verdean Creole, Louisiana Creole, Louisiana French,
Gullah, Afro-Seminole, and possibly others.
AN UPDATE OF THE FEATURES
INTRODUCTION
In a number of cases, research subsequent to the appearance of Rickford 1999a has extended
what we know about their grammar, often revealing more grammatical complexity. I will begin
with an elaboration of the features on his list and then go on to the addition of features not
appearing on his list. These features have sometimes been little discussed in the published
literature on AAE.
FEATURE ELABORATION
Rickfordâs (1999a: 6) sketch of the morphological-syntactic-semantic features, which I will
elaborate on, begins in his Table 1.2: Distinctive grammatical (morphological and syntactic)
features of AAVE.2
In this section on invariant be (invariantly uninflected, sometimes called
be2), I unify and hopefully clarify my treatment of the features by including uses and/or
important information that Rickfordâs list did not discuss. The numbering of features below
continues from the presentation of phonological features in Rickfordâs Table 1.1, thus beginning
with section number 19, âPreverbal markers3
of tense, mood, and aspect.â The first feature
treated in this section is 19a, copula absence, followed in the same table by items 19b and 19c.
Where advisable, when I introduce a feature, I place in brackets a label of it providing sufficient
identification to avoid confusion. The labels in brackets are my own:
5. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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19b [HABITUAL ITERATIVE AUXILIARY INVARIANT be, my term] Use of
invariant be â(sometimes bees) for habitual aspect, as in âHe be walkinâ (usually,
regularly, versus âHe Ă walkinâ right now) for SE [Standard English] âHe is usually
walking/usually walks.â Used with auxiliary do in questions, negatives, and tag
questions, as in âDo he be walking every day?â or âShe donât be sick, do she?â (Fasold
1972: 150-84, Dayton 1996, Green 1998).
19c Use of invariant be for future âwill be,â as in âHe be here tomorrow.â This is
essentially a result of the phonological rule deleting the contracted ââll of willâŠ
(Rickford 1999a: 6).
I will elaborate these remarks on invariant be by noting explicitly additional uses of invariant be,
that need to be singled out:
19c.1 [HABITUAL ITERATIVE COPULA INVARIANT be] Use of invariant be also as a
copula, as in âHe be sickâ4
âHe is (sometimes/ usually/ frequently, etc.) sickâ. (See the example
in 19b, with a tag question.) A more nuanced discussion of meaning is necessary at this point.
Rickford and other AAE scholars usually refer to invariant be as being habitual in aspect.
However, it needs to be clarified, as many do, that according to most discussions of invariant be,
the aspectual meaning is more specifically habitual and iterative aspect. To elaborate, the form
expresses an event5
that is ongoing for a significantly lengthy, i.e., nonfleeting, rather permanent,
time interval, âsignificantly lengthyâ being determined by context). This invariant be is also
interrupted, i.e., iterative. Stated differently, it is not the case that, at every moment during the
time interval of the event, the action or state is in effect. Thus, with a sentence such as âHe be
6. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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walkin to work,â he may not actually be walking to work when the sentence is uttered. In other
words, the overall event, so to speak, is composed of repeated subevents of walking to work.
19c.2 [EQUATIVE HABITUAL DURATIVE COPULA INVARIANT be] First brought to the
attention of scholars by Alim (2001; and see also Alim 2004), who termed it an âequative
copula,â or âbe3,â this use involves constructions of the type [NP be NP] and is shown in the
following (Alim 2006: 76ff):
1. I be the truth.
2. Dr. Dre be the name.
3. We be them Bay boys.
4. It (marijuana) be that good stuff.
5. You know we be some baaad brothas.
Baugh (1983, cited in Alim 2006) also provides examples from his corpus:
6. They be the real troublemakers.
7. Leo be the one to tell it like it is.
Most notable about this use is that the copula is not habitual iterative aspect but habitual and
durative in aspect (see Comrie 1976). That is, the state of being continues uninterrupted
(durative); and, it is a relatively permanent state (habitual) (Comrie 1976: 26ff). Alim is the first
to have zeroed in on this use, making the community of AAE researchers fully aware of it.
Alimâs first two examples are from well-known rappers; but, the second two occurred during
ordinary conversations, not involving performance and poetic language. These examples (the
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7
second twoâ3 and 4) of Alimâs along with Baughâs examples from data collected earlier and
also examples culled from the writings of Black Arts Movement poets of the 1960s and 1970s,
suggest that this use has been around for at least almost sixty years. âIt is possible that members
of the HHN [Hip Hop Nation], with their extraordinary linguistic consciousness and their
emphasis on stretching the limits of language, have made this form much more acceptable by
using it frequentlyâ (Alim 2006: 77).
Alim and others have sometimes referred to this form as hyperrealis; itâs highly emphatic, often
used in boasting (by rappers and others in ordinary conversation). Worth stressing, however, is
that there are examples that certainly do not involve boasting, for example,
8. They be some weak-minded muthafuckas! (Alim 2015: 857)
but that certainly are emphatic. If anything, equative be appears to be semantically emphatic,
and, pragmatically, connotes boastfulness in many, not all, contexts of utterance.
19c.3 [APPROXIMATIVE HABITUAL DURATIVE COPULA INVARIANT be] I have not
encountered discussions of this use in the literature. In the late 1980s or early 1990s, I was
reminded of this use by a student in my Black English course during a discussion of invariant be.
I had heard it many times before (and still hear it occasionally) and was struck that it had never
come to mind during my many encounters with linguistsâ discussions of invariant be.
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What I am calling approximative invariant be actually includes a range of âguestimatesâ and the
information they are based on. The approximative under discussion is exemplified in the
following:
9. He be bout 6 feet tall. 'He's about 6 feet tall.â âOh, Iâd say heâs (about) 6 feet tall.â âHe
would be probably 6 feet tall.â
This example could be analyzed as the result of would (or for some speakers, should) deletion:
10. He be about 6 feet tall < He would/âd be about 6 feet (tall).
Note, however, that ex. 9 can be glossed with is (finite be) or would, which are not equivalent in
meaning, as shown in examples 11 and 12: (semantic) anomaly is produced differentially with
these two forms. Consider the following examples showing the effects of perception and
evidence, where anomaly is indicated with a crosshatch:
RECENT DIRECT PERCEPTUAL EVIDENCE
(Allows finite be but disallows would/âd be, allows approximative be)
11. a. Yea, I see her every day. Sheâs about 6 feet.
b. #Yea, I see her every day. She would/âd be about 6 feet.
c. Yea, I see her every day. She be about 6 feet.
NONRECENT DIRECT PERCEPTUAL EVIDENCE
(Disallows finite be, allows would/âd be, allows approximative be )
12. a. #I havenât seen or heard of her since she was little, but sheâs about 6 feet (based on her
mom and dadâs height).
b. I havenât seen or heard of her since she was little, but she would/âd be about 6 feet
(based on her mom and dadâs height).
9. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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c. . I havenât seen or heard of her since she was little, but she be about 6 feet (based on
her mom and dadâs height).
INDIRECT EVIDENCE ONLY
(As NONRECENT DIRECT EVIDENCE, Disallows finite be, allows would/âd be,
allows approximative be )
d. #I havenât ever/ainât never seen her, but sheâs about 6 feet (based on her mom and
dadâs height).
e. I havenât ever/ainât never seen her, but she would/âd be about 6 feet (based on her mom
and dadâs height).
f. I havenât ever/ainât never seen her, but she be about 6 feet (based on her mom and
dadâs height).
Finite be, unlike would, can be used without producing anomaly in the case of recent direct
perceptual evidence. Would, unlike finite be, can be used without producing anomaly in the case
of nonrecent direct evidence and indirect evidence only. Approximative be can be used in all
three cases. Thus, in regard to the three pragmatic contexts looked at, approximative be has the
broadest range of meaning, which includes that of the other two forms. Approximative be cannot
be taken without reservations as resulting from would deletion.
For example, one might claim that just in those cases in which approximative be and would can
both occur, approximative be is the result of would deletion. To this claim one might object that
it reflects an assumption of what I will term INTERLINGUAL GRAMMATICAL SUPREMACY,
whereby, if a form in one (often stigmatized) language variety, L1, can be analyzed as having its
source (in some or all instances of its occurrence) in another âsuperiorâ (e.g., spoken by or
10. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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associated with a more powerful or prestigious group) L2, then one must assume that indeed the
form in L1 does have its source in L2 (rather than being, e.g., an independent development or
even having given rise to L2 forms). These interlingual assumptions are artifacts of linguistic
ideologies that are inextricable from political, racial, and other ones.
Not assuming any type of interlingual (here interdialectical) grammatical supremacy, one could
simply state that approximative be is a form in AAE grammar with a semantic range that
includes the ranges of two forms in Standard American English6
; and, its historical relationship
to the relevant Standard English forms cannot be demonstrated at the present time.
In terms of aspectual meaning, this approximative use of invariant be expresses habitual and, of
course, durative (i.e., an uninterrupted state of affairs) aspect, as does the equative copula. This
approximative use does not occur with NPs (unless they express a measurement, e.g. a foot, 15
inches), thus the ungrammaticality of the following examples:
13. *She be a doctor. âSheâs probably a doctorâ â Sheâs a doctor more or lessâ
14. *She be a big one. âSheâs probably a big oneâ âSheâs a big one more or lessâ
It does not appear either with other kinds of copular complements, unless they express a
measurement, with an adjective understood, for example, about 6 feet [tall]. The approximatives
typically take adjective phrases; and, they, as other complements, directly or indirectly involve
measurement (age, height, distance, etc.). Much more analysis is required on this invariant be,
and it is hoped that this discussion will stimulate it.
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Rickfordâs feature 19e is unstressed âbeen or binâ (Rickford 1999a: 6). In an article-length
treatment of it (Spears 2017), it is called âunstressed bin.â
19e Use of unstressed been or bin for SE âhas/have beenâ (present perfects), as in âHe
been sickâ for âHe has been sick.â Unlike stressed BIN9
âŠ, unstressed been can co-occur
with time adverbials (e.g., âsince last weekâ), and does not connote10
remotenessâŠ
(Rickford 1999a: 6).
Spears (2017) demonstrates that the grammar of bin is quite complex and intimately tied to that
of stressed BIN. The basics are as follows:
Unstressed bin is the African American English (AAE) verbal form occurring in
sentences such as I bin paid that bill last week âI paid that bill last weekâ. Contrary to
what has been claimed in much of the literature, unstressed binâs existence figures in the
grammars of some contemporary AAE varieties. The literature discusses unstressed bin
but often misrecognizes it. Unstressed bin occurs in many clausal environments where it
can be mistaken for stressed BIN, which is not always stressed, and the past participle
been, which in many English varieties, AAE and other, may occur with the preceding
form of the auxiliary have deleted, as in I Ă been at their house many times âIâve been at
their house many timesâ. Complicating matters is unstressed binâs occurrence in the
homophonous I bin at their house many times âI was at their house many timesâ and âIâve
been at their house many timesâ [Regarding the second preceding gloss, it was not
understood until recently that bin may occur in perfect (present and past) contexts.] The
concept MERGING labels this process, whereby AAE forms such as bin occur in identical
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syntactic environments with homophonous but grammatically distinct forms, creating a
type of grammatical camouflage. More important, merging is part of a larger process of
MAINSTREAMING, whereby one language variety, AAE in this case, converges
qualitatively and quantitatively over time toward a sociopolitically dominant language
variety or cluster thereof, by expanding a speakerâs repertoire of forms (Spears 2017:
151).
Feature 19h is be done.
19h Use of be done for resultative or the future/conditional perfect, as in âShe be done
had her babyâ for SE âShe will have had her babyâ (Baugh 1983: 77-80, Dayton 1996,
Green 1998).
We can actually single out three uses of be done, as follows:
19h.1. Resultative be done1 (Baugh 1983). I use the term disapproval be done (Spears 1985 inter
alia). This form is to be distinguished from the other two be doneâs, examined below). It is a
disapproval (mood) marker, a member of the set of such markers that are among the grammatical
features distinguishing AAE from other dialects of American (i.e., U.S.) English (OAD). There
are four disapproval markers, but I should emphasize that be done is polysemous and expresses
disapproval in only one of its meanings. (I will not enter into a lengthy discussion as to whether
the meanings of be done are all contiguous within a semantic field, which is considered a key
factor for claiming polysemy.) This form as a disapproval marker also expresses a rapid reaction,
or desired rapid reaction, of the clause subject to the disapproved of eventâso egregious is that
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eventâand is often followed by the phrase so fast or so fast you wonât know what happened (to
you). The numbers in brackets indicate the order of events referred to in the sentence.
15. You do that again [1], I be done whip your little behind[2] (so fast you wonât know what
happened to you). âIf you do that again, I will whip your behind so fast you wonât know
what happened.â
16. If the police shoot anybody again [1], we be done had a riot up in here [2].âIf the police
shoot anybody again, weâll have a riot around here (so fast)â
19h.2. Future perfect be done2 (Baugh 1983). Observe, as noted by Rickford (above), be done
may also contextually express the conditional perfect. I will offer no comments on these uses of
the form for lack of space. Note the following examples:
17. They be done finished [1] by the time you get there tomorrow [2]. âTheyâll have finished
by the time you get there tomorrowâ
18. When you get home tomorrow [2], they be done already left[1]. âWhen you get home
tomorrow, theyâll have already left
Be done1 and be done2 obviously have to be distinguished on syntactic and semantic, and
pragmatic grounds. Observe notably the difference in real time clause sequencing,
which does not necessarily reflect linear sequencing.
19h.3 Habitual perfect be done3 (Spears 1990, 2006, inter alia). It should be noted that this form
is tenseless. Consequently, it may contextually be past, present, or future tense, as noted in
these examples:
14. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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19. âŠthey was all raggedy, and they buttons be done fell offâŠ(PAST)
ââŠthey were all raggedly, and their buttons (habitually) had fallen offâŠâ, said by a
minister speaking of not wanting to be a minister in his youth because the ministers he
saw looked poor
20. Every time I see him [dog], he be done dug up something (PRESENT).
âEvery time I see him, heâs dug up something.â
21. After you get there and get all settled in next week, youâll seeâevery time you run into
him he be done spent all his money again. ââŠheâll have spentâŠâ
Before leaving be done, a point should be made. As noted, be done3 is tenseless. (See Dayton
1996 for additional discussion of tenselessness in AAE.) This fact is important in determining to
what extent the AAE auxiliary systemâindeed AAE grammarâis different from that of OAD.
A question that arises in regard to (future perfect) be done2 and (habitual perfect) be done3 is
whether the two forms, which I have treated separately, are actually one and the same form. If
they are one and the same form, then that one form can (1) contextually express perfectivity, as
in for instance ex. 18, which does not take an habitual11
perfect (be done2) interpretation or (2)
contextually express habitual perfect, as in the be done3 examples. Unfortunately, this issue
cannot be pursued due to space limitations.
19j [Semi-auxiliary come of indignation; disapproval marker come] Use of come to express the
speakerâs indignation about an event, as in âHe come walkin in here like he owned the damn
placeâ (Spears 1982: 852).
15. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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This form is labeled as a mood marker due to its signaling of speaker attitude (disapproval, more
specifically, indignation) regarding the event expressed by the clause in which come occurs. This
come is distinct from the motion verb come and is one in the set of disapproval markers in AAE,
distinguishing it from OAD (Spears 1982, 1990, 2006, 2009) and was the first form used to
illustrate grammatical camouflage, the result of language contact processes whereby an AAE
form erroneously appears to be the same as what is actually a distinct, homophonous form. Thus,
the motion verb come is misrecognized as the disapproval marker come. In the case of all
camouflaged forms, there are grammatical environments in which the distinctness of the AAE
form is clear to the grammatical analyst. Observe the following examples, showing contexts in
which the motion verb come cannot occur, those with be and those with the opposing orientation
go:
22. Fool12
come (DISAPPROVAL MARKER) being all stuck-up with everybody just cause
he was driving a Ferrari.
23. He come (DISAPPROVAL MARKER) going in my room, didnât knock or nothing.
Also, come occurs alongside the motion verb:
24. He come coming in here raising all kind of hell.
This form occurs infrequently in the simple past form, came, typically in the speech in more
formal situations with mostly college educated speakers. It always refers to a past event, with the
exception of when it serves as an admonition or warning, referencing an event that has not
occurred:
25. ⊠and donât come going over to Alfonso n them house. ââŠand donât you dare go over to
Alfonso and his siblingsâ houseâ
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FORMS NOT ON RICKFORDâS LIST13
Rickfordâs (1999a) last feature in his Table 1.2 is 19m, so I start below with 19n, which begins a
new group (19n â 19p) of additions to Rickfordâs list.
19n Use of disapproval marking auxiliary gone (or go) (Spears 1982, 1990, 2006, 2009 inter
alia). This is the third, in addition to be done1 and come, disapproval form in AAE.
26. Now why he gone act like that? [PAST TENSE] âNow why the hell did he act like that?â
27. And he gone raise the damn window! âAnd he had the nerve to raise the damn window!â
Said by a teenager on a bus that really stank because of the smell of a passenger who had
just raised and closed the open window.
19o Use of the disapproval marking âdoubleâ auxiliary gone-come (Spears 1982, 1990, 2006,
2009 inter alia). I call it a double auxiliary, and write it with a hyphen, because its grammar is
not fully predictable from its two morphemes. (See the references for more discussion.)
28. He gone-come telling me I had to change my whole transmission [instead of just doing a
simple repair]. âHe had the nerve to tell me had to change my whole transmissionâ
29. Jane said he gone-come asking her if I could steal one for him [I canât believe he had the
nerve]. âJane said he had the nerve to ask herâŠâ
17. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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Note from the gloss for the last example above, that it is the speaker, the âI,â who is expressing
disapproval, not Jane. The three disapproval markers, come, gone, and gone-come, are speaker
bound, in the sense that they always express speaker disapproval, no matter how far down in a
sentence that they are embedded. Additionally, these disapproval markers cannot be used to
express another speakerâs disapproval; they invariably reflect back to the speaker, whether or not
another subject in the sentence disapproves also. In other words, these disapproval markers
cannot be âquotedâ without the speakerâs emotive and evaluative commitment to the
disapprobation. Thus, note the infelicity, indicated with a crosshatch, of
30. #It didnât seem that bad to me, but Jane said he come/gone/gone-come asking her to steal
one for him.
19p Use of the auxiliary stressed STAY (Spears 2000, 2017) Habitual iterative frequentative
in aspect: it expresses an event comprising subevents that recur frequently, as in
31. She STAY talkin on the phone. âShe is always talking on the phone (frequently and
repeatedly, not nonstop)â
32. He STAYS at Gramma house. âHeâs always at Grammaâs house (frequently and
repeatedly, not continuously)â
Observe that stressed STAY is variably inflected for 3sg (as in the preceding example) and that it
can occur without stress (as in the following example), as can stressed BIN. It may also be
inflected for past tense (as in the following example), thus expressing an habitual event in the
past:
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33. Iâm glad he left town; he stayed [WITHOUT STRESS] over here. âIâm glad he left town;
he was always (repeatedly and frequently) over hereâ
CONCLUSION
Perhaps the most intriguing questions in regard to the forms treated in this chapter are whether
they are unique to AAE among US Englishes and whether we find counterparts in at least one
creole language of the Western Hemisphere.14
Table 1 pulls this kind of information together,
showing that nine of the forms do or probably do occur solely in AAE among US Englishes. This
suggests that, as more qualitative research is done on AAE, we will find that it is more different
grammatically from OAD than we realized.
What these results clearly tell us is that AAE scholars need to do more qualitative research, to
complement the much more extensive quantitative research conducted on AAE and also to take
into account fully all of the forms distinctive to AAE in discussions of AAEâs grammatical status
and history. It is noteworthy that four of the forms in AAE occur also in creoles. Moreover, there
are strong hypotheses that 19b and 19c.1 are derived from creole source items (via phonological
reduction; see Spears 2008)âand also Hiberno English (Rickford 1999a, Chap. 8). If these two
were added to the list of creolisms (Spears 2008) in AAE, we would have six verbal forms in
AAE that have creole counterparts--not to mention other types of forms such as bare nouns
(Spears 2004, 2007). One verbal auxiliary, unstressed bin, is more robust in AAE than in OAD.
We should not be too hasty in assuming that AAE forms that are much more robust in AAE than
in OAD were not diffused from AAE to OAD, or that their presence in OAD may have
reinforced, to varying extents, their presence in AAE. This is especially relevant in assessing the
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status of unstressed bin (Spears 2017). In sum, these observations argue that the time is upon us
to consider a new creolist hypothesis on AAE origins.
TABLE 1: A Comparison of AAE to Other Language Varieties Based on Features Presented in
This Chapter. (â?â indicates uncertainty. (See Spears 2008 for discussions supporting the
information presented in this table.)
Grammatical
Feature
Occurs in one
or more
Western
Hemisphere
creoles
Occurs
also in
OAD
Occurs in
OAD but is
significantly
rarer than in
AAE
19b. Habitual
iterative
auxiliary
invariant be
+
(if we accept
creole does be
as the source of
this form,
following
Rickford 1999a,
Ch. 8)
+ +
19c. Invariant be
resulting from
will/would
deletion
? + + ?
19c.1. Habitual
iterative copula
invariant be
+
(if we accept
creole does be
as the source of
19b, following
Rickford 1999a,
Ch. 8)
+ +
19c.2.Equative
habitual durative
copula invariant
be
- - N/A
19c.3.
Approximate
habitual durative
copula invariant
be
- -? N/A
20. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
20
19e. Unstressed
bin
Stressed BIN
+
-
+
+
+
+ (there is no
reason to
believe it was
not diffused
from AAE to
OAD)
19h.1.
Resultative,
disapproval
marker be done
- - N/A
19h.2. Future
perfect be done
- -? N/A
19h.3. Habitual
perfect be done
- - N/A
19j.Come of
indignation
(disapproval
marking [semi-]
auxiliary)
+ - N/A
19n. Disapproval
marking
auxiliary gone
+ - N/A
19o. Disapproval
marking
âdoubleâ
auxiliary gone-
come
+ - N/A
19p. Auxiliary
stressed STAY
-? - N/A
I cannot leave the topics treated in this chapter without spotlighting Johnâs foundational work on
stressed BIN (Rickford 1975). As a result of my research for Spears 2017, on unstressed bin, I
discovered that many of the earlier works, often discussing the stressed and unstressed forms, did
not distinguish between them; thus, I had to separate out the forms that could only be unstressed
bin, to serve as examples in my article. This is to say that, whenever we carry our research
21. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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forward, we appreciate anew the importance of classic writings in the field, among which are
found the writings of John Rickford.
22. UPDATE OF AAE GRAMMATICAL FEATURES (#18), Spears
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NOTES
1
To wit: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmaticsâand including
the lexicon.
2
Since he includes comments on meaning, earlier in this chapter, I refer to some of his
descriptions as including semantics and pragmatics, the latter focused on meaning expressed
only in some contexts of utterance.
3
Preverbal marker is the term often used for these items in creole studies. In AAE studies, they
are typically referred to as AUX, auxiliaries verbs, or simply auxiliaries.
4
Rickford is aware of the copula use of invariant be, as is clear from example in 19b with the
copula, âShe donât be sick, do she?; however, he does not single out this use for comment.
5
Or âsituation,â the term used by Comrie (1976) in his book on apect and also seen in some
subsequent work on tense, mood, and aspect.
6
Keep in mind African American Standard English (Spears 2015).
9
See Chapter 2 of Rickford 1999a on stressed BIN.
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