Course Description
In this course, we will consider the distinctive varieties of English that are spoken by and among African Americans, particularly in those areas of the country where African American people are concentrated (be they large cities or small rural areas). Referred to by a number of different names, including African American English (AAE), African American Vernacular English (AAVE), and African American Language (AAL), the use of these language systems reflects a connection – typically quite complex — to the communities of enslaved Africans in the United States and their descendants. The principal focus of the course will be on varietization; What formal and social properties hold these language varieties together as such and, further, connect them to one another? Beyond examining the present-day morphological, syntactic, and phonological features that are typically taken to distinguish African American Englishes from other varieties, we will examine both their roles in grammatical systems and their use in creating social meaning. Although emphasis will be on present-day AAE, some attention will be given to issues of its origins. A 100-level class, this course presupposes only what one would learn in a standard Introduction to Linguistics course.
Area Tags: Dialects, Variation
(Sessions 1&2) Tuesday/Friday 1:30-2:50
Location: ILC S416
Instructor: Mike Terry
J. Michael Terry is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, and adjunct in the Department of African, African American, and African Diaspora Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His work focuses on African American English (AAE). Although he works primarily in tense and aspect semantics, his research employs a mix of methods. He has written on the topics such as the semantics of AAE tense/aspect markers, single-speaker level variation in AAE, quantifying the use of style-shift in African American adolescents, and, most recently, how dialectal difference affects AAE-speaking 2nd graders’ performance on math tests.
