Approach of the Study

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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter presents the results of analysis and the discussion of two problems as stated in Chapter I. The analysis begins with the linguistic features of African American Vernacular English as seen in the novel then those are compared to Standard English. Lastly, this chapter also analyzes the causes of two different culturalcommunication between the characters. All the data are taken from a novel entitled The Help. A. Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English Seen in the Novel The linguistic features of African American Vernacular English shown in the novel are categorized into three features, those are syntactical, phonological and lexical. Those features indicate the differences between African American Vernacular English and Standard English.

1. Syntactical Features

As we know, English syntax brings its own rules and are used and studied by English speakers . According to Miller, syntax “has to do with how words are put together to build phrases, with how phrases are put together to build sentences ” Miller, 2002: xii. Therefore, the purpose of studying syntax itself is to get better understanding on how words is combined into phrases and sentences so we enable to communicate well with others. As the speakers of African American Vernacular English, one of English dialects, the black housemaids in the novel use many expressions that syntactically different to English spoken by the white masters. Followings are some syntactical features of African American Vernacular English shown in the novel, which are spoken by two black housemaids, Aibileen and Minny.

a. T

he use of copula A copula is linking verb that connecting subject to a predicate. “There is a technical term for the auxiliary verb that takes the forms be, been, being, am, are, is, was, and were. It is called the copula” Wheeler, 1999: 45. For Standard English speakers, a certain subject is followed by a certain copula. However, for African American Vernacular English the use of copula are different from Standard English, they do not follow the use of the copula in Standard English. Below are some differences in using the copula in African American Vernacular English

i. The absence of the copula

In Standard English, a copula plays an important role. A copula can be used as a main verb of a sentence. On the other hand, African American Vernacular English speakers do not put the copula in the sentence or the copula is absent, that makes the sentence do not have any verb. There are some cases to highlight the different use of the copula; those can be seen in the following data taken from the novel: