Ling 605 -- Introduction to African-American English

This course is designed to introduce students to the structure and history of the varieties of English used by African Americans, as well as the relationship between language use and socio-cultural factors in the African American speech community. Parallels with other language varieties and communities in the African diaspora (especially the Caribbean) will be explored. The course will be built around the following themes:

1. The linguistic features that distinguish varieties of African American English (AAE) from other varieties of American English (AE). In particular, we will explore aspects of grammar such as the tense/aspect system, the copula, negation and other features in phonology and lexicon which are relevant to the status of African American speech varieties vis a vis other dialects.
   
2. The socio-historical background to the emergence of AAE and the various hypotheses which have been proposed to account for its origins and development. We will evaluate the so-called "creolist" and "dialectologist" hypotheses and attempt to reconcile them as far as possible.
   
3. The various ways in which language use in the African American community correlates with or is influenced by social factors and values. We will consider the role of language choice in marking social identities and relationships, and its role in conveying social meaning and communicative intent in conversation and other kinds of discourse. Speech events and styles of speaking characteristic of the African American community will also be discussed.
   
4. Educational and social opportunity among African Americans, as they might be affected by attitudes toward varieties of AAE both among African Americans and in the wider society. We will examine the role of language in creating or reflecting social stereotypes, and the implications this has for social advancement among African Americans. The applications of linguistic and sociolinguistic studies to problems faced by African Americans in education and other areas of public life will also be considered.

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