Leonna Hertanu. In her thesis, she discusses three problems; the expressions of Black English, the linguistics features, and the social factors.
The linguistics features found in Hertanu‟s findings are also helpful as the
guideline of this thesis. Hertanu ‟s thesis tries to see the social factors that
influence the use of Black English in the movies. The setting of the movies is in 2000s and the social factors that are discussed include gender relation and power
relation. Gender relations examine the relations of male-to-male or male to female relationship. Power re
lations in Hertanu‟s analysis will include the relation of same or equal position, high position and low position to the speakers. The same
or equal position elaborates the relation among friends in the equal position. The high position in Hertanu‟s analysis will discuss the position of one character is
higher than the other in family context. The low position in these movies are shown when one character is richer than the other character.
In this thesis, social factors are also discussed through the theory of speech accommodation. The differences between this thesis and He
rtanu‟s thesis are on the subject of the research in the social status context. In
Hertanu‟s, the subjects are based on gender and power relation. The power relation focuses on sibling
relation. In this thesis, the subjects are the black housemaids and the white masters. Therefore, it will discuss the distinctive utterances between a black
housemaid to a black housemaid, a black housemaid to a white master and a white master to a white master.
B. Review of Related Theories
Those theories below are theories needed to conduct this research.
1. The theory of African American Vernacular English
The focus of this research is on African American Vernacular English. So the theory of African American Vernacular English will discuss about the definition,
the linguistic features and the history. Those will be beneficial to conduct the analysis of this research.
a Definition of African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English is one of English dialects that spoken by African-Americans. Some labels have been given to African American
Vernacular English, such as Black English BE, Black English Vernacular BEV, or Non-standard Negro English. African American Vernacular English
also have many varieties, including “the Krio of Sierra Leone, Caribbean creole, the Gullah dialect on the coast of South Caroline, American Black English and
other” Kovecses, 2000: 94. A variety of English has some linguistic features as the identity but has been
underestimated for decades and has been seen distinctively from Standard English. “The term African American Vernacular English is generally used to
refer to the nonstandard English spoken by lower-class African American Trudgill, 2000:52.
b. Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English
Trudgill stated in his book Sociolingustics: An Introduction to Language and Society
that “the term dialect refers, strictly speaking, to differences of
vocabularies and grammar as well as pronunciation” Trudgill, 2000:5. As one of English dialects, African American Vernacular English also has its own linguistic
features as their characteristics that differentiate it from other varieties of English dialects.
The linguistic features of African American Vernacular English used in this research taken from
Rickford‟s table of distinctive features as seen in his book African American Vernacular English for syntactical and phonological features
and from Lisa J. Green‟s book entitled African American English for lexical aspect
i. Syntactical Features
The most frequent linguistic features of African American Vernacular English in this novel are the syntactical aspect. According to Miller, the definition
of syntax “has to do with how words are put together to build phrases, and with
how clauses are put together to build sentences.” Miller, 2002: xii. Syntax is needed to construct words into phrases or sentences so the speaker can transfer
messages to the listener and the listener can understand the messages well.
a. Preverbal marker of tense, aspect and mood
In order to make the construction of the English phrases or sentences more understandable, there are several things to be considered. The speaker also needs
to pay attention on the tense, aspect, and mood. Tense, aspect and mood are interrelated and three of them are useful to identify which verb that is going to be
used in making sentences. In English verb system, tense has to deal with time, which are past, present and future. Aspect in English verb can be divided into two,
