Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Inheritance and Innovation in the Evolution of Rural African American English

Inheritance and Innovation in the Evolution of Rural African American English

Bailey, Guy
Salinas, Juan
Cukor-Avila, Patricia

Paperback

Series: Elements in World Englishes

Linguistics

ISBN10: 1009087711
ISBN13: 9781009087711
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: Oct 6 2022
Pages: 82
Weight: 0.27
Height: 0.17 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
This Element uses data from the Springville Project to explore how the functions of the inherited forms invariant be (from English sources) and zero (from creolization) have transformed during the twentieth century. Originally just alternative present tense copula/auxiliary forms, both features developed into aspectual markers - invariant be to mark durativity/habituality and zero to mark nonstativity. The motivation for these innovations were both socio-cultural and linguistic. The Great Migration and its consequences provided a demographic and socio-cultural context within which linguistic innovations could develop and spread. The mismatch between form and function within the present tense copula/auxiliary system and the grammatical ambiguities that affected both invariant be and zero provided linguistic triggers for this reanalysis. When taken together, the evolution of these forms illustrates how restructured linguistic subsystems (and eventually new varieties) emerge out of the interplay between inheritance and innovation.

Also from

Bailey, Guy

View All

Also in

Linguistics

View All