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

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