The Emergence of Black English: Text and Commentary (Creole Language Library, Vol 8)

Debate over the evolution of Black English Vernacular (BEV) has permeated Afro-American studies, creole linguistics, dialectology and sociolinguistics for a quarter of a century with little sign of a satisfactory resolution, primarily because evidence that bears directly on the earlier stages of BEV is sparse. This book brings together 11 transcripts of mechanical recordings of interviews with former slaves born well over a century ago. It attempts to make this crucial source of data as widely known as possible and to explore its importance for the study of BEV in view of various problems of textual composition and interpretation. It does so by providing tra nscripts of most of the contents, and by publishing a group of interpretive essays, which examine the data in the light of other relevant historical, cultural, social and linguistic evidence and which provide contexts for interpretation and analysis. In these essays a group of diverse scholars on BEV analyze the "same" texts for the first time; the lack of consensus that emerges may seem surprising, but in fact highlights some of the basic problems of textual composition and interpretation and of scholarly dispositions that underlie the study of BEV. The papers raise questions about the evolution of BEV, about its relationship to other varieties, and, most important, about the construction and interpretation of linguistic texts. Table of contents......Page 6 PREFACE......Page 10 INTRODUCTION......Page 12 The Contents of the Collection......Page 13 The Reliability and Validity of the Collection as Linguistic Data......Page 17 Conduct of the Fieldwork......Page 23 Composition of the Transcripts......Page 25 The Interpretation of the Recordings and Transcripts......Page 29 NOTES......Page 31 TEXTS......Page 32 Wallace Quarterman......Page 34 Fountain Hughes......Page 40 Uncle Billy McCrea......Page 52 Uncle Bob Ledbetter......Page 56 Joe McDonald and Woman......Page 62 Isom Moseley......Page 66 Alice Gaston......Page 70 Laura Smalley......Page 72 Harriet Smith......Page 90 Celia Black......Page 110 Charlie Smith......Page 118 COMMENTARY......Page 132 Speaking of Slavery: The Historical Value Of the Recordings With Former Slaves......Page 134 The Tapes as History......Page 135 The Tapes and the Interview Process......Page 141 Slave Narratives, Slave Culture, and the Slave Experience......Page 144 Slaves As Chattel......Page 146 Slave Attitudes Toward Masters......Page 148 Slave Duties and Occupations......Page 149 Folk Material Culture and Crafts......Page 150 Folk Narratives......Page 152 The Religious Experience......Page 156 Recreation......Page 160 The YankeeSoldiersRemembered......Page 161 The Post-Slavery Experience......Page 162 Summary and Conclusions......Page 164 Introduction......Page 166 Interviewing the Interviewer......Page 170 Social Situation in the 1930s......Page 175 Conclusion......Page 179 The Linguistic Value of the Ex-Slave Recordings......Page 184 Problems With Reliability of the Data......Page 185 Problems with Quality of the Data......Page 188 Left Dislocation......Page 191 Relative Pronouns......Page 194 Comparison To Gullah......Page 197 Summary......Page 198 NOTES......Page 199 Introduction......Page 202 Representativeness......Page 203 Reliability......Page 206 Changes That Make a Qualitative Difference......Page 207 Changes That Make a Quantitative Difference......Page 209 Summary and Conclusion......Page 211 NOTES......Page 212 Appendix......Page 216 1. Introduction......Page 224 2. The Data......Page 226 3.1 Quarterman's Speech is Just Mesolectal......Page 228 3.2 Gullah Is Not Decreolizing......Page 234 4. Conclusion and Some Reflections......Page 236 NOTES......Page 238 The Atlantic Creoles and the Language of the Ex-Slave Recordings......Page 242 1.1 Creole Unmarked/Anterior versus English Present/Past......Page 245 1.2 Progressive and Habitual Aspect......Page 247 2. Forms of be......Page 249 3. The Noun Phrase......Page 251 5. Prepositions......Page 253 7. Lexical Items......Page 254 8. Conclusion......Page 255 NOTES......Page 259 1.1 The Liberian Settlers' New World Roots......Page 260 1.2 Three LSE Speakers......Page 264 2.1 The Verb System: Aspect......Page 265 2.2 The Verb System: The Copula......Page 269 2.3 The Verb System: done and ain't......Page 271 3.1 Variation in Plural Marking......Page 272 3.2 Plural Marking in the Ex-Slave Recordings and LSE......Page 274 4. Conclusion......Page 277 NOTES......Page 280 Appendix A......Page 284 Appendix B......Page 285 1.0. Introduction......Page 286 2.1. Hypercorrection......Page 289 2.2. Aspectual marker......Page 290 2.4. Synchronic dialectal remnant......Page 291 3.0. Conflicting Analyses......Page 293 4.0. Historical precursors of -s variability......Page 298 5.0. -S variability in Modern English......Page 301 6.0. Data and methods......Page 302 6.1.1. Neutralization contexts......Page 303 6.1.2. Exceptional distributions......Page 304 6.2. Coding and analysis......Page 305 7.1. Distribution of -s across the verbal paradigm......Page 306 7.2. Phonological effects on -s usage......Page 307 7.2.1. Underlying Phonetic Form......Page 308 7.2.2. Environmental factors......Page 309 7.3.1.1. Type of subject......Page 311 7.3.1.2. Definiteness of the subject......Page 312 7.3.2.1. Verbal aspect......Page 314 7.3.2.2. Verb type......Page 316 7.4.1. The sequence constraint......Page 317 7.4.2. "Narrative" -s......Page 318 7.4.3. Summary of individual effects......Page 319 7.5. Multivariate analysis of the contribution of factors to verbal -s usage......Page 321 8.0 Discussion......Page 324 NOTES......Page 330 APPENDIX......Page 338 BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 342 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS......Page 362 Debate over the evolution of Black English Vernacular (BEV) has permeated Afro-American studies, creole linguistics, dialectology, and sociolinguistics for a quarter of a century with little sign of a satisfactory resolution, primarily because evidence that bears directly on the earlier stages of BEV is sparse. This book brings together 11 transcripts of mechanical recordings of interviews with former slaves born well over a century ago. It attempts to make this crucial source of data as widely known as possible and to explore its importance for the study of Black English Vernacular in view of various problems of textual composition and interpretation. It does so by providing a complete description of the contents of the recordings, by providing transcripts of most of the contents, and by publishing a group of interpretive essays which examine the data in the light of other relevant historical, cultural, social, and linguistic evidence and which provide contexts for interpretation and analysis. In these essays a group of diverse scholars on BEV analyze the same texts for the first time; the lack of consensus that emerges may seem surprising, but in fact highlights some of the basic problems of textual composition and interpretation and of scholarly dispositions that underlie the study of BEV. The papers raise crucial questions about the evolution of BEV, about its relationship to other varieties, and, most important, about the construction and interpretation of linguistic texts. Contains 11 transcripts of mechanical recordings of interviews with former slaves born over a century ago. The book attempts to make this source of data as widely known as possible and to explore its importance for the study of BEV in view of problems of textual composition and interpretation. Eleven transcripts of mechanical recordings of interviews with former slaves born well over a century ago. The book attempts to make this source of data as widely known as possible and to explore its importance for the study of BEV in view of problems of textual composition and interpretation.