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Chapter 15: AFRICAN‐AMERICAN ENGLISH
(Craig, Thompson, Washington, & Potter, 2003; Craig, Kolenic, & Hensel, 2013; Packer, 2001)
SPECIAL NOTE: VOCABULARY
African‐American English shares the majority of its vocabulary with other English
dialects, especially Southern United States English, although some lexical variations do exist.
These include both unique words and words whose meanings differ from their usage in
Standard American English (e.g., “threads” meaning clothes). Many words and phrases that
originated in African‐American English have become part of Standard American English, such
as “chill out” and “funky.”
CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS FOR LANGUAGE: MORPHOSYNTAX
Note: Sentences in italics are grammatical dialectical variations.
Feature AAE SAE Examples
Present tense verb Can be used, Must always be He a boy. He is a boy.
“to be” omitted, or included
substituted as He eatin’. / He is eating.
determined by
context and The coffee bees cold./
contractibility The coffee is cold.
There go a bus./ There is
a bus.
st
Past tense verb “to Uses the same form Uses “was” for 1 You was going to
rd
be” (i.e., “was”) with all and 3 person go./You were going to
persons and numbers singular and go.
“were” for all
other persons We was going to go./We
and numbers were going to go.
Habitual/ Allows for inflection Expressed He be waiting all day./
continuative state of the verb “to be” through adverbs He waits all day.
and inflected
forms of the verb She been buying me 96
“to be” clothes./ She has been
buying me clothes (for a
long time).
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