African American vernacular English as seen in a novel the help by Kathryn Stocket.

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PRATIWI, TIFFANY HANA. African American Vernacular English Used by the Black Housemaids as Seen in a Novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.

Language is an important means in communication. Language is used to express feelings, to deliver a message and even language can be an identity of a society. In one language, we can find some dialects, social or regional dialect. While using a dialect, people can show their social background or regional background. In The Help by Kathryn Stockett, the black housemaids speak in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), which is one of English dialects that exists in America. Their dialect is the most interesting in the novel because it has their own linguistic features that differentiate it to Standard English. The linguistic features include syntactical features, phonological features and lexical features. In addition, the characters in the novel communicate to each other in different cultural background and the linguistic features of African American Vernacular English are not only used by the black housemaids but also used by the white masters.

This research is conducted to answer two problems. First is to analyze the linguistic features of AAVE. Second is to see the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel.

This research was conducted with a contrastive linguistic approach. The data were collected from chapter one to four in the novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The linguistic features were taken from two black housemaid characters, Aibileen and Minny and for the causes of two different cultural communication, the data were taken from the dialogue of a black housemaid to a black housemaid, a black housemaid to a white master and a white master to a white master. After all the data were collected, the categorizations were made using the contrastive linguistic approach to find the linguistic features including syntactical, phonological, and lexical and also to find the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel

As the result for the linguistic features of AAVE, there are twenty-seven differences on syntactical, three in phonological processes, and five in lexical features. The causes of two different cultural communication among the characters are caused by similarity attraction (a black housemaid to a black housemaid), casual attribution or educational background (a black housemaid to a white master) and intense communication to lead to lexical borrowing (a white master to a white master). In conclusions, AAVE has its own linguistic features as their identity of the dialect and even if the language or culture is different, people can still communicate well if they want to adapt to each other.

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ABSTRAK

PRATIWI, TIFFANY HANA. African American Vernacular English Used by the Black Housemaids as Seen in a Novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.

Bahasa merupakan sebuah sarana yang penting dalam berkomunikasi. Bahasa digunakan untuk mengekspresikan perasaan, untuk menyampaikan pesan dan bahkan Bahasa bisa menjadi identitas sebuah masyarakat. Di dalam satu Bahasa kita dapat menemukan beberapa dialek, dialek sosial dan dialek regional. Ketika menggunakan dialek, seseorang dapat menunjukan latar belakang sosial ataupun latar belakang regionalnya. Dalam novel The Help karya Kathryn Stockett, pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam menggunakan African American Vernacular English, yang merupakan salah satu dialek Bahasa Inggris yang ada di Amerika. Dialek merekalah yang membuat novel ini menarik karena memiliki beberapa ciri-ciri linguistik yang berbeda dengan Bahasa Inggris Standar. Ciri-ciri-ciri tersebut yaitu sintaksis, leksikal, dan fonologi. Tambahan pula, karakter-karakter dalam novel ini saling berkomunikasi dalam budaya yang berbeda dan ciri-ciri linguistik African American Vernacular English tidak hanya digunakan oleh pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam tetapi juga oleh majikan berkulit putih.

Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua permasalahan. Pertama adalah menganalisa ciri-ciri linguistik dari AAVE. Kedua adalah melihat penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda antar para karakter di novel ini.

Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan pendekatan linguistik kontrastif. Data-data untuk penelitian ini diambil dari bab satu hingga bab empat dari novel The Help

karya Kathryn Stockett. Untuk ciri-ciri linguistik AAVE diambil dari dua karakter pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam, Aibileen dan Minny dan untuk penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda, data-datanya diambil dari dialog antar sesama pembantu kulit hitam, pembantu kulit hitam dan majikan kulit putih, dan sesama majikan berkulit putih. Jika semua data telah terkumpul, maka kategorisasi dari ciri-ciri yang ada pada dialek AAVE dibuat dengan menggunakan pendekatan linguistik kontrastif untuk menemukan ciri-ciri sintaksis, fonologi, dan leksikal dan untuk menemukan penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda antar para karakter didalam novel.

Sebagai hasil untuk ciri-ciri dari AAVE, terdapat 27 pada sintaksis, 3 proses fonologi, dan 5 pada leksikal. Pengaruh komunikasi antar budaya pada ciri-ciri linguistik AAVE disebabkan oleh kesamaan ketertarikan (antar pembantu rumah tangga kulit hitam), casual attribution maupun latar belakang pendidikan (pembantu rumah tangga kulit hitam dan majikan kulit putih), dan komunikasi intens yang menyebabkan peminjaman leksikal (antar majikan kulit putih). Kesimpulannya AAVE memiliki ciri-ciri linguistik sebagai identitas dialek mereka dan meskipun berbeda budaya, seseorang masih bisa berkomunikasi dengan baik

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AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH AS SEEN

IN A NOVEL THE HELP BY KATHRYN STOCKETT

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

In English Letters

TIFFANY HANA PRATIWI

Student Number: 114214047

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTER

FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY

YOGYAKARTA 2015

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“

You may say I'm a dreamer, but

I'm not the only one. I hope

someday you'll join us. And the

orld ill li e as one.”

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This thesis is dedicated to

My Beloved Parents

&

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to say my greatest gratitude to Allah SWT for the endless

blessing, mercy and chances. I had been through all this time against all the

obstacles because I have enormous faith in Allah SWT that my unspoken prayers

would be answered. Finally, I can proudly finish my thesis.

I am thankful for having Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A., as my thesis

advisor. I would never have done it without his patience, guidance and chances. I

am also thankful for having Anna Fitriati, S.Pd., M.Hum, as my co-advisor, for

giving me suggestions so I can make my thesis better.

I am so blessed to have so many people who always support me while

working on this thesis. For the best supporters in my life, my parents (Agus

Priyatno & Sri Adhayanti) and my younger brother (Kevin Dio Armandika),

thanks for the encouragement and the motivations. For my best friends, Dian,

Veni, Danang, Wahyu, Kak Teguh, Lynka, Mbak Istri, Mbak Eline, Kak Richie,

Kak Lola, Mbak Ganis who have been with me these four years, thanks for

sharing all the laughter and tears together. Then, I would like to express my

gratitude to my very best partner, Hendy. We start it together and finally we made

it. Thanks for your endless care, time and support. I am so grateful to have you

with me.

All those experiences and chances given to me were making me realize

that I should make all people who always support me, proud and happy. Merci

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

TITLE PAGE………. i

APPROVAL PAGE………. ……. ii

ACCEPTANCE PAGE………. iii

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY………. iv

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI………….. v

MOTTO PAGE………... vi

DEDICATION PAGE……… vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………... viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS………... ix

ABSTRACT……….... xiii

ABSTRAK………... xiv

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION……….. 1

A. Background of the Study………. 1

B. Problem Formulation………... 4

C. Objectives of the Study……… 4

D. Definitions of Terms……… 5

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE A. Review of Related Studies……….. 8

B. Review of Related Theories……… 11

1. Theory of African American Vernacular English……….. 11

a. Definition of African American Vernacular English………... 11

b. Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English... 11

i. Syntactical Features……… 12

a. Preverbal marker of tense, aspect and mood………. 12

b. Verbal tense marking……… 15

c. Nouns and Pronouns………... 17

d. Negation……… 18

e. Questions……….. 20

f. Existential and locative constructions……….. 21

ii. Phonological Features………. 22

iii. Phonological Processes………... 25

a. Assimilation………... 25

b. Dissimilation………. 25

c. Segment insertion rules………. 26

d. Segment deletion rules………... 26

e. Movement (Metathesis)………. 26

iv. Lexical Features………... 26

a. Kitchen………... 27

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c. Mannish and Womanish……… 28

d. Get over……… 28

e. Come………. 28

f. Mash………... 29

g. Some………. 29

c. History of African American Vernacular English………... 29

2. Theory of Standard English………... 33

a. Definition of Standard English……… 33

3. Theory of Speech Accommodation………... 35

4. Theory of Speech Modification Strategies………... 37

5. Theory of the Components of Communicative Events………. 37

C. Theoretical Framework……….. 38

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY……….. 40

A. Object of the Study………. 40

B. Approach of the Study……… 41

C. Method of the Study………... 42

1. Data Collection………... 42

2. Data Analysis……….. 43

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……… 45

A. Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English seen in the novel……… 45

1. Syntactical Features………... 45

a. The Use of Copula……… 46

i. The absence of the copula……… 47

ii. The use of singular copula is/ ‘s following the first-person singular pronoun I………... 47

iii. The use of singular copula to use with third-person plural personal pronoun………. 48

iv. The use of plural copula with third person singular pronoun………. 49

v. The use of singular copula to use with plural noun………. 50

b. The use of be………. 50

i. Be to indicate future……….. 51

ii. Be to replace copula………. 51

_{c. Multiple functions of}_a………_{... 52}

i. A function as to infinitive……….52

ii. A function as preposition of………... 53

iii. A function as preposition at………... 53

iv_{. A function as auxiliary have}………...₅₄

d. Verbal tense marker………. 54

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ii. The adding of suffix -ed/d in the irregular verb………. 55

iii. The use of present tense verb to state past tense verb………. 56

iv. The use of past participle verb to indicate past tense verb………... 57

v._{The Absence of auxiliary}_{have/ has/ had}_{in the} perfect tense……… 57

vi.The use of done to indicate completed action………. 58

vii.The use of gone to indicate future………. 58

viii. The use of to be + on + v-ing to indicate future………….. 59

e. Noun marker………... 60

i. The adding of suffix –s to irregular plural noun ………... 60

ii. The absence of article……….. 61

f. Pronoun Marker……… 61

i. The generalization of subject pronoun as possessive pronoun……… 62

ii. The use of object pronoun them to indicate the……….. 62

iii. The absence of relative pronoun……… 63

iv. The use of pronoun they as existential / locative marker……… 63

g. Negation……….. 64

i. The use of ain’t………... 64

ii. Double or multiple negation……… 65

iii. The use of ain’t but or don’t but to indicate only………. 66

2. Phonological features………. 67

a. Assimilation……….. 67

b. Deletion……… 67

c. Deletion and insertion rules……….. 69

_{3. Lexical Features}……….₇₀

a. The use of real as intensifier………... 71

b. The use of set instead of sit……… 72

c. The use of get/ got to instead of have /had to……… 73

d. The use of fix instead of make……… 73

e. The use of idiomatic expressions………... 74

B. The causes of two different cultural communication among the characters………... 75

1. A black housemaid to a black housemaid………. 75

2. A black housemaid to a white master……… 78

3. A white master to a white master………... 83

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION……….. 86

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APPENDICES………..93

Appendix 1: The Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English and the Comparison to Standard English…….94 Appendix 2: The Characters and the Total Use of African American Vernacular English Linguistic Features………148 Appendix 3: The Expressions of African American Vernacular

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ABSTRACT

_{This research was conducted with a contrastive linguistic approach. The}

data were collected from chapter one to four in the novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The linguistic features were taken from two black housemaid characters, Aibileen and Minny and for the causes of two different cultural communication, the data were taken from the dialogue of a black housemaid to a black housemaid, a black housemaid to a white master and a white master to a white master. After all the data were collected, the categorizations were made using the contrastive linguistic approach to find the linguistic features including syntactical, phonological, and lexical and also to find the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel

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ABSTRAK

PRATIWI, TIFFANY HANA. African American Vernacular English Used by the Black Housemaids as Seen in a Novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.

Bahasa merupakan sebuah sarana yang penting dalam berkomunikasi. Bahasa digunakan untuk mengekspresikan perasaan, untuk menyampaikan pesan dan bahkan Bahasa bisa menjadi identitas sebuah masyarakat. Di dalam satu Bahasa kita dapat menemukan beberapa dialek, dialek sosial dan dialek regional. Ketika menggunakan dialek, seseorang dapat menunjukan latar belakang sosial ataupun latar belakang regionalnya. Dalam novel The Help karya Kathryn Stockett, pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam menggunakan African American Vernacular English, yang merupakan salah satu dialek Bahasa Inggris yang ada di Amerika. Dialek merekalah yang membuat novel ini menarik karena memiliki beberapa ciri-ciri linguistik yang berbeda dengan Bahasa Inggris Standar. Ciri-ciri tersebut yaitu sintaksis, leksikal, dan fonologi. Tambahan pula, karakter-karakter dalam novel ini saling berkomunikasi dalam budaya yang berbeda dan ciri-ciri linguistik African American Vernacular English tidak hanya digunakan oleh pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam tetapi juga oleh majikan berkulit putih.

Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan pendekatan linguistik kontrastif. Data-data untuk penelitian ini diambil dari bab satu hingga bab empat dari novel The Help karya Kathryn Stockett. Untuk ciri-ciri linguistik AAVE diambil dari dua karakter pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam, Aibileen dan Minny dan untuk penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda, data-datanya diambil dari dialog antar sesama pembantu kulit hitam, pembantu kulit hitam dan majikan kulit putih, dan sesama majikan berkulit putih. Jika semua data telah terkumpul, maka kategorisasi dari ciri-ciri yang ada pada dialek AAVE dibuat dengan menggunakan pendekatan linguistik kontrastif untuk menemukan ciri-ciri sintaksis, fonologi, dan leksikal dan untuk menemukan penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda antar para karakter didalam novel.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Language plays an important role in human communication. Human

communication also has developed from centuries ago. In the ancient‟ history, human carved the rock surface to form symbols in order to communicate with

others, but now time has changed, humans no longer carved the rock but they use

spoken or written language to communicate with others.

Language in today‟s world is so diverse. Countries have their own language as their identity or the language was influenced by historical background

such as the colonialists‟ language. Understanding language is complex, because

within one language sometimes it has more than one dialects. “The term dialect refers, strictly speaking, to differences between kinds of language, which are

differences of vocabulary and grammar, as well as pronunciation” (Trudgill, 2000: 5). English, for example, it has many dialects spread across the world such as

British English, American English, Singaporean English and many more, which

make English as the most spoken language in the world.

Dialect itself can be divided into regional dialect and social dialect. The

problem arises when people tend to see dialect as a mistake form of one language

due to some differences. One of dialects, which still a controversy among

linguists, is Black English or African American Vernacular English. African

American Vernacular English as an English dialect has several labels from time to

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During the period when African Americans were generally called Negroes, terms such as Negro Dialect, Non-standard Negro English, and American Negro Speech could be heard. Nowadays Afro American English, African American English (AAE), African American Language, and African American Vernacular English (AAVE). There are also several names with the

word „Black‟ contained in them that can be heard: Black Communication,

Black Dialect, Black Folk Speech, Black Street Speech, Black English (fairly common), Black English Vernacular, and Black Vernacular English. (Jokinen, 2008: 1).

The controversies of African American Vernacular English are about the

origin, the development, or the issue that states African American Vernacular

English as the non-Standard English with mistakes. In the past, people had given

negative labels to African American Vernacular English, which was maligned as

“disgusting black street slang; incorrect and substandard; nothing more than ignorance; lazy English; bastardized English; the language of illiteracy and this

utmost ridiculous made-up language” (Rickford, 2000: 6). The language can survive until now but the negative labels are still with African American

Vernacular English especially for those who do not study language. For linguists,

those who are majoring human language, they definitely see African American

Vernacular English as one of English dialects. Unfortunately, for non-linguists,

they tend to see African American Vernacular English as bad version of English,

which can lead to racial or social segregation.

Standard English is a term that refers to the acceptable grammar, vocabulary

and pronunciation of English language, used in any formal or informal situation

by educated people. As stated in a book The Development of Standard English

1300-1800:Theories, Descriptions & Conflict thathistorically Standard English is

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educated English used within the triangle drawn with its apexes at London,

Cambridge and Oxford” (Wright, 2000:49). Due to colonization, English spread across the world and used in many countries. In English-speaking countries, they

establish their own standard so there is no official rule to determine Standard

English as long as the English is acceptable in certain region. According to Peter

Trudgill, Standard English “is thus not the English language but simply variety of

it” (Trudgill, 1999: 118).

Standard English is seen as the language of educated people. The language that

can be obtained in academic institution or academic processes. However, the word

„Standard‟ becomes a controversy among linguists. Standard English could be

meant as any variety of English that is accepted as national standard in any

English-speaking countries. Peter Trudgill, a sociolinguist, said that Standard

English is a variety of English language.

Standard English, whatever it is, is less than a language, since it is only one variety of English, in all sorts of ways: it is the variety associated with education system in all the English speaking countries of the world, and is

therefore the variety of spoken by those who are often referred to as „educated

people; and it is the variety taught to non-native learners. Standard English is thus not the English language but simply variety of it (Tridgill, 1999: 118).

The Help by Kathryn Stockett was firstly published in 2009. This novel is

about the housemaids‟ life in 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi through the

perspective of two black housemaids, Aibeleen and Minny, and one white woman,

Skeeter. The interesting point in this novel is African American Vernacular

English spoken by the black housemaids, because there are some distinctions in

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The purpose of this research is to introduce the non-linguist readers that

African American Vernacular English as one of English dialect has some

linguistic features as their identity. Therefore, three aspects of African American

Vernacular English that were analyzed in this thesis include the syntactical aspect,

the phonological aspects and the lexical aspects. Then, those aspects were also

compared to Standard English. Finally, this thesis included the causes of two

different cultural communication among the characters in the novel.

B. Problem Formulations

The study focuses on two-problem formulation as follows:

1. What linguistic features of African American Vernacular English are shown in

novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett?

2. What are the causes of two different cultural communication among the

characters in the novel?

C. Objectives of the Study

In order to understand African American Vernacular English, this research is

conducted by analyzing three problems. The first problem is about the linguistic

features of African American Vernacular English. The aim is to identify the

linguistic features of African American Vernacular English are shown in the

novel. The linguistic features of African American Vernacular English were

compared to Standard English. The readers are expected to know the differences

between Standard English and African American Vernacular English by reading

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Vernacular English is not a non-standard English with mistakes. African

American Vernacular English is a variation of English that exists in America and

the linguistic features are their identity.

The second problem is about the causes of two different cultural

communication among the characters. In the communications between two

characters, whose different in cultures show that the characters adapt to each

other, this part is conducted to find the causes. This part involves the comparison

in the communication among the characters: a black housemaid to a black

housemaid, a black housemaid to a white master, and a white master to a white

master.

D. Definition of Terms

1. African American Vernacular English

African American Vernacular English is a term that refers to one of

English dialects, spoken by African-Americans. “Known also by a succession names from Black English to Black Vernacular English, Afro-American English,

and Ebonics.” (Flora, 2002:21). Trudgill also explains in his bookSociolingustics: An Introduction to Language and Society that a dialect “refers, strictly speaking, to differences between kinds of language, which are differences of vocabulary and

grammar, as well pronunciation” (Trudgill, 2000: 5). In the book,The Companion to Southern Literature also stated, "dialects have their own rules of sound

combination and verb phrases and their own vocabulary and performance

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linguistic features including syntactical, phonological and lexical. Those features

make African American Vernacular English different to Standard English.

2. Standard English

English is the most used language and becomes the international language.

“Spoken by more than 380 million people in the United Kingdom, the United

States, and the former British empire, it is the largest of the Western languages”

(Baugh and Cable, 2002:4). In English-speaking countries, they establish their

own standard of English. It is taught in education fields, used by the media and by

the government. Simply of it, there is no official rule to determine Standard

English as long as the English is accepted in certain region. Standard English “is thus not the English language but simply variety of it” (Trudgill, 1999: 118).

Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that carries most prestige

within a country. „Prestige‟ is a social concept, whereby some people have high

standing in the eyes of others, whether this derives from social class, political

strength, popular acclaim, or education background. The English that these people

choose to use will, by the very fact, become the standard within their

communication (Crystal, 2005:110).

3. Linguistic Features

Linguistics is known as the study of language. In studying a language,

there are many things to be observed. Moreover, every language has their own

linguistic features that differentiate them to other language. English as the most

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Phonology is a study of the sound pattern of language (Fromkin et al,

2011: 227). This study describes how words are pronounced in a language. The

sound system of a language and the processes of how it is pronounced are

discussed in phonological.

Syntax is another important aspect in studying language. Syntax is the

study of “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.

Lexical items can be meant as the vocabularies of a language. This is

important because each language has their own words or vocabularies as their

identity. In English speaking-countries, the words or vocabularies are the same but

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

This chapter is divided into four parts, they are review of related studies, review

of related theories, and theoretical framework. The review of related studies will

elaborate the studies that have been done by the other researchers in related with

the topic. The review of related theories will conclude the theories that are used in

solving the problems. Theoretical framework is the part of explaining the role of

the related theories in order to answer the problems.

A. Review of Related Studies

In this part, there will be several studies of the previous researchers, which

still related to the topic of this research. The studies also discuss about African

American Vernacular English but in different sources. These related studies are

important in order to elaborate the analysis.

1. A graduate thesis entitled The African American English in Georgia Doyle

Johnson‟s Frederick Douglas and Loraine Hansberry‟s „A Raisin in the Sun/ by Nizmanuddin Sadiq. The purpose of his thesis is to comprehend and describe the

forms of particular variety of informal English that is African American English.

To achieve the purpose, he includes the distinctive features of African

American Vernacular English shown in the novels based on phonological,

morph-syntactical and lexical items then compares those features to Standard English.

The difference between Sadiq‟s thesis and this thesis lies on the theories.

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His thesis is helpful as a guidance for this thesis. There are some findings

which similar to the findings of this thesis. However, some items that are not

existed in the Sadiq‟s thesis will be revealed in this thesis.

2. An undergraduate thesis entitled A Phonological Analysis of Black English

in 50 Cent‟s Song Lyrics in the Album „Curtis‟ by Estu Kuncoro Ismarono. The focus of this thesis is on the phonological features of Black English. The purpose

of Ismarono‟s thesis is to know phonological processes of Black English that lead to different spelling.

To achieve the purpose, Ismarono firstly analyzes the each word of the lyrics

into phonological process. After that, Ismarono can derive the characteristics of

Black English phonology.

The difference between Ismarono‟s thesis and this thesis lie on the focus. We

discuss the same topic, which is African American Vernacular English or Black

English, but Ismarono only focusses on the phonological features. The other

difference also lies on the form of the work. Ismarono uses 50 Cent‟s songs so he can hear how the singer produces the sound. Meanwhile, this thesis uses a novel,

which is written. Therefore, this thesis needs to use orthography theory.

The findings of Ismarono‟s thesis are guidance to the phonological features. His findings of phonological process are quite complete. It helps this thesis to

elaborate more about phonological processes happen to African American

Vernacular English.

3. An undergraduate thesis entitled A Study of the Use of Black English in

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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 relations 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 Hertanu‟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

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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

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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,

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which are perfect and progressive. Mood itself in English verb also known as

modality and it can be divided into three: indicative, subjunctive and imperative.

Each tense, aspect and modal has their own markers to be used in certain

situation. In African American Vernacular English, the marker of tense, mood and

aspect are found missing or use differently, as in:

a. The absence of copula/ auxiliary is and are for present tense states and

actions as in “He

ø tall” For SE “He

‟stall” or “They ø running” for Standard English “They are running” (Rickford, 1999:6).The function of a copula in Standard English is to link nonverbal predicates (i.e., nouns, adjectives, and

certain adverbials) with their subjects and serves as a carrier for tense and

subject verb agreement (Celce-murcia, 1983:33-34).

b. The use of invariant be (sometimes bees) for habitual aspect, as in “He be walkin” (usually, regularly, versus “He

ø

walkin” right now) for Standard English “He is usually walking/ usually walks.” (Rickford, 1999: 6).

c. The use of invariant be for future “will be,” as in “He be here tomorrow,”

This is essentially a result of the phonological rule deleting the contracted „ll of will. (Rickford, 1999: 6). Be in Standard English can be placed in simple

future tense or future progressive after will. For example: “He will be here in

an hour” (simple future), “He will bewalking to school at 8 a.m. tomorrow”

(future progressive) (Celce-murcia, 1983: 64).

d. Use of steady as an intensified continuative marker, usually after invariant

habitual be, but before a progressive verb, for actions that occur consistently

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(Rickford, 1999:6). While in Standard English, continues aspect is marked by

placing be (present: is, am, are or past: was, were) and followed by V-ing.

e. Use of unstressed been or bin for Standard English “Has/have been” (present

perfect), as in “he beensick” for Standard English “he has been sick.” Unlike stressed BIN, unstressed been can co-occur with time adverbials (e.g. “since

last week”) and does not connote remoteness (Rickford, 1999: 6).

f. Use of stressed BIN to mark remote phase (that the action happened or the

state came into being long ago) as in “She BIN married” for Standard English

“She has been married for a long time (and still is),” or “He BIN ate it” for

Standard English “He ate it a long time ago. (Rickford, 1999:6).

g. Use of doneto emphasize the completed nature of action, as in “He done did

it” for Standard English “He‟s already done it.” (Rickford, 1999:6). Done in Standard English is past participle of do, and it is usedin perfective sentence

to describe a completed action. In African American Vernacular English,

done can co-occur with been, as in “By the time I got there, he been done gone” or, in the reverse order, “They done been sitting there an hour” (Rickford, 1999: 6).

h. Use of be done for resultatives or the future/ conditional perfect, as in “She be done had her baby” for Standard English “She will have had her baby” (Rickford, 1999: 6).

i. Use of finna (sometimes fisna, derived from “fixin‟ to”) to mark the

immediate future, as in “He finna go” for Standard English “He‟s about to go) (Rickford, 1999: 6).

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j. Use of had to mark the simple past (primarily among preadolescents) as in

“then we had went outside” for SE “then we went outside” (Rickford, 1999: 6). In Standard English, had is used as perfective aspect marker. In past tense

is marked by the regular form of past tense verb (V-ed) or the irregular form

of verb.

k. Use of double modals, as may can, might can, might could (common in

Southern White vernaculars) for Standard English “might be able to” or must

don‟t (more unique to AAVE) for Standard English “must not” (Rickford, 1999: 6). Single modal is more common to Standard English speaker.

l. Use of quasi modals liketa and poseta, as in “I liketa drowned” for Standard English “I nearly drowned” and “You don‟t poseta do it that way” for SE “You‟re not supposed to do it that way” (Rickford, 1999:7).

b. Verbal tense marking:

In the Standard English, tense brings its own characteristics. English verbs

are also known for its regularity and irregularity. Regular verb means the form of

the past tense and past participle of the verb is same with suffix –d/ed. In irregular verb, the past tense and the past participle of the verb has different pattern. The

present tense uses the base of the verb or V1 and the third person singular use V1

+ s/es. The past tense use past verb or V2. In perfective, it uses past participle or

V3. In African American Vernacular English, the markers of the verb tense are

found different to Standard English as follows:

a. Absence of third person singular present tense –s, as in “He walkø

”

for Standard English “He walks.” The use of don‟t instead of “doesn‟t” as in “He

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don‟t sing” or have instead of “has” as in “She have it” is related, since “doesn‟t” and “hasn‟t” include third singular –s (Rickford, 1999: 7). In simple present tense which refers to present time. The verb after the third person

singular (he, she, it) should be ended by –s (Quirk et al, 1972:85).

b. Generalization of is and was to use with plural and second person subjects

(i.e., instead of are and were) as in “They is some crazy folk” for Standard English “They are crazy folk” or “We was there” for Standard English “We were there” (Rickford, 1999: 7).

c. Use of past tense or preterite form (V-ed) as past participle (V-en), as in “He had bit” for Standard English “He had bitten,”or “She has ran” for Standard English “She has run” (Rickford, 1999: 7). To form perfective sentences, it needs have/ has/ had + past participle. The form of past participle itself can

be divided into regular verb, it is usually ended with –d/-ed and irregular verb, there are not basic rules to form it.

d. Use of past participle form (V-en) as past tense or preterite form (V-ed), as in

“She seen him yesterday” for Standard English “She saw him yesterday” (Rickford, 1999: 7). On the contrast of above characteristic, which shows the

use of past tense as past participle, African American Vernacular English

speaker usually uses past participle form (V-en) as past tense.

e. Use of verb stem (V) as past tense or preterite form (V-ed), as in “He come down here yesterday” for Standard English “He came down here yesterday.” (Rickford, 1999: 7). The verb base or verb stem can also be used as past tense

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c. Nouns and pronouns.

A noun is a word that refers to a person, an animal, a place, a thing, an

activity, or quality. In Standard English nouns, the marker of singular or plural

noun is clear, which is by using suffix –s for plural or not using suffix –s for singular. Otherwise, in African American Vernacular English the marker of

singular or plural noun in some situation is absent.

A pronoun is a word that replaces nouns or noun phrases. Pronoun in

Standard English can be divided into several types. In African American

Vernacular English, the pronouns are somewhat different.

Those differences of African American Vernacular English and Standard

English in nouns and pronouns can be seen in the following characteristics:

a. Absence of possessive –s, as in “Johnø house” for Standard English “John‟s house” (Rickford, 1999: 7). To show possessive in Standard English, it needs „safter the subject whose own the object.

b. Absence of plural –s, as in “two boyø” for Standard English “two boys.” (Rickford, 1999: 7). The plural form of noun in Standard English is marked by

the final –s/ -es after the noun. For example: “horses”, “languages”, “heroes”

(Quirk et al, 1972:172).

c. Use of and (th)em or nem, usually after a proper name, to mark associative

plurals, as in “Felicia an‟ (th)em” or “Felician nem” for “Felician and her friend or family or associates (Rickford, 1999: 7).

d. Appositive or pleonastic pronouns, as in “That teacher, she yell at the kids”

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For African American Vernacular English, the use of appositive or pleonastic

pronouns is common, as seen in the above example, she refers to that teacher

even if she is omitted from the sentence as seen in the example of Standard

English, the sentence is acceptable.

e. Use of y‟all and they to mark second person plural and third plural possessive

respectively, as in “It‟s y‟all ball” for Standard English “It‟s your ball” and

“It‟s they house” for Standard English “It‟s their house” (Rickford, 1999: 7). To show possessive in Standard English, regularly the speaker use the

possessive pronouns such as my, your, his, her, their, our.

f. Use of object pronouns (me, him, and so on) after a verb as personal datives

(=”(for) myself,” “(for) himself‟ and so on) as in “Ahma git me a gig” for

Standard English “I‟m going to get myself some support” (Rickford, 1999: 8).

g. Absence of relative pronoun (who, which, what, that) as in “That‟s the man ø come here” for Standard English “That‟s the man who came here.” Note that the omitted form is a subject relative pronoun (who). Many varieties of

English allow for the omission of object relative pronoun, e.g. “That‟s the man (whom) I saw,” but the omission of subject relatives is rarer, and more unique to African American Vernacular English (Rickford, 1999: 8).

d. Negation

African American Vernacular English speakers in some situation use the

same negator as in Standard English. In Standard English, they use not after the

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use ain‟t. Other characteristics of making negative sentence of African American Vernacular English can be seen as follows:

a. Use of ain‟t as general preverbal negator, for Standard English “am not,”

“isn‟t.” “aren‟t,” “hasn‟t,” “haven‟t,” and “didn‟t” as in “He ain‟t here” for

Standard English “He isn‟t here,” or “He ain‟tdo it” for Standard English “He

didn‟t do it” (Rickford, 1999: 8). Negation of simple sentence in Standard English is accomplished by inserting the word not between the operator and

the predication (Quirk et al, 1972: 374).

b. Multiple negation or negative concord (that is, negating the auxiliary verb and

all indefinite pronouns in the sentence), as in “He don‟t do nothing” for

Standard English “He doesn‟t do anything” (Rickford, 1999: 8). Multiple negation can be happened in Standard English but the effect is different from

multiple negation in African American Vernacular English. They use more

than one negative form but the result is a single negative. In Standard English,

when it has multiple negation it results in a positive sentence. In African

American Vernacular English, they tend to use the negative word, while in

Standard English, they tend to use a non-assertive word after a negative. For

example: “No one never said nothing” (multiple negation) could be meant “No

one ever said anything” in Standard English (Quirk et al, 1972: 379).

c. Negative inversion (inversion of the auxiliary and indefinite pronoun subject),

as in “Can‟t nobodysay nothing” (inverted from “Nobody can‟t say nothing”

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(From “Nobody ain‟t home”) for Standard English “Nobody is home” (Rickford, 1999: 8)

d. Use of ain‟t but or don‟t but for “only”, as in “He ain‟t but fourteen years

old” for Standard English “He‟s only fourteen years old” or “They didn‟t take

but three dollars” for Standard English “They only took three dollars” (Rickford, 1999: 8). In African American Vernacular English ain‟t but or don‟t butare used to replace “only”. In Standard English, “only” can be used in an implied negative statement.

e. Questions

Forming questions in Standard English is by placing wh-question then is

followed by the auxiliary verb. Below are some characteristics of African

American Vernacular English in making questions:

a. Formation of direct questions without inversion of the subject and the

auxiliary verb, usually with rising intonation, as in “Why I can‟t play? for Standard English “Why can‟t I play?” and “They didn‟t take it? for Standard English “Didn‟t they take it?” (Rickford, 1999: 8). The order elements in wh-questions of Standard English is not only by initial placing of the

Q=element, but by the inversion of subject and operator in all cases except

that in which the Q-element is subject, where the rule of initial Q-element

takes precedence over the rule of inversion. If there is no operator in the

equivalent statement, do is introduced as substitute operator in the questions

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b. Auxiliary verb inversion in embedded questions (without if or whether), as in

“I asked him couldhe go with me” for Standard English “I asked him if he

could go with me” (Rickford, 1999: 8). In Standard English to form an

embedded / indirect question normally uses “if” or “whether”.

f. Existential and locative constructions

Existential and locative constructions are used to show the existence and

location of something being referred. Existential sentences are principally those

beginning with the unstressed word there, and are so called because when

unstressed there is followed by a form of the verb be, the clause expresses the

notion of existence (Quirk et al: 1972: 958)

In the following characteristics of African American Vernacular English on

the existential and locative construction will show the differences to Standard

English:

a. Use of existential it (is,„s, was, ain‟t) instead of there (is, „s, was, isn‟t) as in

“It‟s a school up there” for Standard English “There‟s a school up there” (Rickford, 1999: 8).

b. Use of existential they got as plural equivalent of singular it is, instead of

there are, as in “They got some hungry women here” (line from a Nina Simone song) for Standard English “There are some hungry women here” (Rickford, 1999: 9).

c. Use of here go as static locative or presentational form, as in “Here go my

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showed me her artwork) for Standard English “Here‟s my own” (Rickford, 1999: 9).

ii. Phonological features

Phonological means it has relation to sound. Every language produces their

own phonological identity that means the sound that they produce may have some

differences. Therefore, it needs phonology to understand the sound of a language.

a. Reduction of word-final consonant clusters (i.e., sequences of two or more

consonants), especially those ending in t and d, as in han‟ for Standard English “hand”, des‟ for Standard English “desk”, pos‟ for Standard English

“post”, and pass‟ for Standard English “passed” (the –ed suffix in “passed” is pronounced as [t]) (Rickford, 1999: 4).

b. Deletion of word-final single consonant (especially nasals) after a vowel, as in

ma‟ [mæ] for Standard English “man,” ca‟ [kæ] for Standard English “cat” and ba‟ [bæ:] for Standard English “bad” (Rickford, 1999: 4)

c. Devoicing of word final voiced stops after a vowel, i.e., realization of [b] as [p],

[d] as [t], and [g] as [k], as in [bæt] for Standard English [bad], and [pik] for

Standard English “pig”. The devoiced consonant may be followed or replaced by a glottal stop. (Rickford, 1999:4).

d. Realization of finale ng as n in gerunds, e.g. walkin‟ for Standard English

“walking” (Rickford, 1999:4)

e. Realization of voiceless th [

ɵ

] as t for f, as in tin for Standard English “thin” and baf for Standard English “bath” (Rickford, 1999: 4).

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f. Realization of voiced th [ð] as d or v, as in den for Standard English “then”, and

bruvver for Standard English “brother” (Rickford, 1999: 4).

g. Realization of thr sequences as th, especially before [u] or [o],as in thodown

[Өodaun] for Standard English “throwdown.” (Rickford, 1999:4).

h. Deletion or vocalization (pronunciation as s weak neutral vowel) of l after a

vowel, as in he‟p for Standard English “help”, and toah for Standard English

“toll”. May have the grammatical effect of deleting the “ll” of contracted will,

as in “He be here tomorrow” for Standard English “He‟ll be here tomorrow,” especially when the following word begins with labial b, m or w. (Rickford,

1999:5)

i. Deletion or vocalization of r after a vowel as in sistuh for Standard English

“‟sister” or fouh for Standard English “four.” This rule applies more often when r comes at the end of a word and is followed by a word beginning with a

consonant (four posts) rather than a word beginning with a vowel (four

apples), but it also can apply when a vowel follows within the same word, as

in Ca‟ol for Standard English “Carol” or sto‟y for Standard English “story”. Grammatical effects may include the use of they for Standard English

possessive “their” (Rickford, 1999:5)

j. Deletion of initial d and g in certain tense aspect auxiliaries, as in “ah „on know” for Standard English “I don‟t know” and “ah‟m „a do it” for Standard English “I‟m gonna do it”, the distinctive African American Vernacular English use of ain‟t for didn‟t probably derives historically from this rule too. (Rickford, 1999: 5).

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k. Deletion of unstressed initial and medial syllables, as in „fraid for Standard English “afraid” and sec‟t‟ry for Standard English “secretary”. (Rickford, 1999: 5)

l. Metathesis or transposition of adjacent consonants, as in aks for Standard

English “ask” (Rickford, 1999:5)

m. Realization of Standard English v and z (voiced fricatives) as d and z

respectively (voiced stops), especially in word-medial position before a nasal, as

in seben in Standard English “seven” and idn‟ for Standard English “isn‟t” (Rickford, 1999:5)

n. Realization of syllable-initial str as skr, especially before high front vowels like

“ee” [i], as in skreet for Standard English “street” and deskroy for “destroy”

(Rickford, 1999:5)

o. Monophthongal pronunciation of ay and oy, as in ah for Standard English “I” and boah for Standard English “boy” (Rickford, 1999: 5)

p. Neutralization/ merger of [լ ] and [ε] before nasals, as in [pɩ n] for Standard English “pin” and “pen” (Rickford, 1999:5)

q. Realization of “ing” as “anf” and “ink” as “ank” in some words, as in thang for Standard English “thing”, sang for Standard English “sing”, and drank for Standard English “drink” (Rickford, 1999: 5).

r. Stress on first rather than second syllable, as in pόlice instead of Standard English “police”, and hόtel instead of Standard English “hotel” (Rickford, 1999:5).

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s. More varied intonation, with “higher pitch range and more rising level final

contours” than other American English varieties. (Rickford, 1999:5). iii. Phonological Processes

Above is how the phonological features of African American Vernacular

English different to Standard English. Here is the phonological processes or also

known as rules of phonology, is “the relationship between the phonemic representation of a word and its phonetic representation or how it is pronounced”

(Fromkin et al, 2003:244). This part will show the processes of phonology that

happen in the differences of pronunciation.

a. Assimilation.

According to Fromkin et al, assimilation is “a rule that makes neighboring segments more similar by duplicating a phonetic property” (246). In other words, it‟s a phonological process to make the words are easy to be pronounced. For

example: “the voiced /z/ of the English regular plural suffix is changed to [s] after

a voiceless sound, and that similarly the voiced /d/ of the English regular past

tense suffix is changed to /t/ after a voiceless sound. (Fromkin et al, 2003:247).

b. Dissimilation.

Dissimilation is a process “in which a segment becomes less similar to another segment” (248). This kind of process occurs when it‟s difficult to

pronounce repeated similarly sound. For example: sequences /fθ/ and /sθ/

changing them to /ft/ and /st/. Here the fricative /θ/ becomes dissimilar to the

preceding fricative by becoming a stop. The words fifth and sixth come to be

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c. Segment Insertion Rules.

It‟s a process of inserting a consonant or vowel, is called epenthesis. The

rules for forming regular plurals, possessive forms, and third-person regular verb

agreement in English all require an epenthesis rule. It can be seen for plural

formulation: Insert a [ə] before the plural morpheme /z/ when a regular noun ends in a sibilant, giving [əz] (Fromkin et al, 2003:250).

d. Segment deletion rules.

Segment deletion rules are commonly found in many languages and are far

more prevalent than segment insertion rules. One such rule occurs in casual or

rapid speech. We often delete the unstressed vowels that are show in words like

the following: mystery,general, memory, funeral, vigorous, Barbara. These words

in casual speech sound as if they were written: mystry, genral, memry, funral,

vigrous, Barbra (Fromkin et al, 2003:251)

e. Movement (Metathesis).

Phonological rules may also reorder sequences of phonemes, in which case

they are called metathesis rules. For some speakers of English, the word ask is

pronounced [æks], but the word asking is pronounced [æskiŋ]. In this case, a metathesis rule reorders the /s/ and /k/ in certain context (Fromkin et al,

2003:253).

iv. Lexical Features

As one of English dialects, lexical features also have contribution to African

American Vernacular English linguistic features. Lexical could be meant as the

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speakers use the same vocabularies as the other English varieties‟ speakers. However, the meanings of the vocabularies are some found different. Those will

differentiate African American Vernacular English from other English varieties.

The African American lexicon includes the same type of information that is

found in the general American lexicons. The difference is the former lexicon will

have entries for words that sound like words in general American English:

however, the meaning and perhaps other information will be different from the

corresponding homonyms in general American lexicon. (Green, 2002: 20)

Lisa J. Green in her book entitled African American English shows some

lexical differences that found in African American Vernacular English. She

explained the lexical differences, the meaning and the comparison to mainstream

English. Those will be shown on the following examples:

a. Kitchen.

According to Green, kitchen in African American Vernacular English can be

meant as nappy hair around the nape of the neck, especially on women or girls

(2002:16). In Standard English, bd on The New Webster‟s Dictionary, kitchen is the part of the house where the food is prepared (1997: 227).

b. Seddity

According to Green, African American Vernacular English speakers use

seddity to refer to a bourgeois black person, snobbish, and pretentious (Green,

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c. Mannish and womanish

Mannish and womanish could be used to refer to characteristics of a man or

characteristics of a woman. However, these words can be used to refer to boys or

girls, respectively, who are seen as behaving inappropriately for their young ages.

In African American Vernacular English, these words can be describe to the

behavior of a baby or young boy who is particularly advanced or independent for

his age (Green, 2002: 20).

d. Get over

Get over is one of idioms which the meaning is different to Standard English.

In African American Vernacular English, get over is to take advantage of someone

or situation. It can be seen in “the students tried to get over on the teacher” it means, “the students tried to take advantage of the teacher” (Green, 2002: 21). However, based on Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms, get over means to

feel better after an illness or bad situation or it can be meant as to accept a fact or

situation (2003:146).

e. Come

In African American Vernacular English, come is used to express speaker

indignation, for example “he come walking in here like he owned the damn place” (Green, 2002:22). In Standard English, the definitions of come based on New

Webster‟s dictionary are to approach, to arrive, to appear, to occur, to reach, to result (1997: 77).

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f. Mash

According to Green, mash in African American Vernacular English used to

mean press or apply light pressure to an object to achieve result. The example of

using mash is “mash the button again so the elevator will come to this floor” (Green: 2002, 22). Otherwise, in Standard English mash based on The New

Webster‟s Dictionary is to cause to become a mash, by grinding, crushing etc (1997: 253).

g. Some

For African American Vernacular English, some used to indicate the extremity

of a state of action, it has the meaning of very. It can be seen in “Kareem Abdul Jabar is some tall” (Green, 2002: 23). According to The New Webster‟s

dictionary, some is an indefinite quantity or indefinite number of people or things,

or it can be used also to indicate approximately (1997: 419).

c. History of African American Vernacular English

Based on history, English was employed in England, it spread across the

world due to the colonialism. They colonized many countries and contacted to the

people. It makes them as the most spoken language in the world. That is why

English has many dialects such as American English, Singaporean English,

Australian English, etc.

The African firstly came to America was due to slavery. African Slavery in

America was began in early of the seventeenth century brought by the Dutch.

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Spoken Soul, they said, “when the African slaves arrived on the American mainland they were often put to work on plantations alongside these indentured

servants. Since the number of African slaves was relatively small in the

beginning, the first slaves would have had little difficulty learning the English that

spoken by their employers and fellow laborers” (Rickford, 2000:132).

The development of African American Vernacular English itself is still

controversial for some linguists. Thus, there are two theories regarding how

African American Vernacular English was developed in America: the dialect

hypothesis and the creole hypothesis. The dialect hypothesis conducted by the

dialectologist stated that the slaves learned English from people surrounding

them. “The African American Vernacular English dialect formed from dialect spoken the lower-class Euro-Americans in the southern US” (Parker, 2005: 148). As immigrants whose their native language was not English, they learned the

„wrong‟ English or non-standard English, and they continued to use that language. The second hypothesis is called the creole hypothesis. Based on the glossary

in the An Introduction to Language, a Creole is “a language that begins as a

pidgin and eventually becomes the first language of a speech community through

its being learned by children.” (Fromkin et al, 2003: 579). By the process of decreolization, African American Vernacular English has begun to more like

Standard English. However, due to the social and racial segregation made the

linguistic differences between African American Vernacular English and SE were

visible.

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that the men and women from different language group will marry and have children with whom there will be little option but to speak in the pidgin. While the multitude of African languages initially resulted in the slaves developing a pidgin based on English vocabulary, the following generations of slaves grew up speaking only the pidgin, and the original African languages ceased to be passed on at all. When a pidgin language replaces the original vernaculars that caused it to evolve in this waym we say that the pidgin has become a creole. (Crowley, 1992: 267)

Due to the slavery, African slaves at that time could not raise better life or

education. “More that half of all slaves in 1860 worked on plantation, and most of

those were fieldhands” (Tindall, 1997: 438). The slavery had started since early of the seventeenth century until 1860s, brought up anti-slavery movement to United

States. A civil war between the Confederate States of America and the United

States that killed billions of white and black people from April 1961 to April 1965

caused Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1863.

“Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation which warned on

January 1, 1863, all slaves in Confederate States or areas still under active

rebellion would be „thenceforward and forever free‟ (Tindall, 1997: 512)” However, this emancipation did not satisfy enough for the blacks, it seemed not

legal enough. That is why in 1865, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the Thirteenth

Amendment on January 1865. The amendment was the sign of the end of war and

about the abolishment of slavery in the United States. “thus removing any

lingering doubts about the legality of the emancipation” (Tindall, 1997: 514).

Unfortunately, the Thirteenth Amendment could not guarantee the rights of

African-American citizens. They still had to face racial segregation, which means

those „Black‟, Americans were separated from the „White‟ American. The

(48)

Southerners began passing new laws enforcing racial segregation (separation of

black people from whites) known as Jim Crow Laws. Based on Encyclopedia

Britannica (2015), Jim Crow Law is any of the laws that enforced racial

segregation in the South between the end of the formal Reconstruction period in

1877 and the beginning of a strong civil rights movement in the 1950s.

The segregation was enforcing the „Black‟ Americans to be not equal with the „White‟ Americans in facilities such as they had to use the different bus, different library, and different bathroom. The segregation is seen in the novel

proposed by a white lady, Hilly Holbrook.

“That‟s exactly why I‟ve designed the Home Help Sanitation Initiative,” Miss Hilly say. “As a disease-preventive measure.”

Miss Skeeter look real confused. “The Home… the what?‟

“A bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. I‟ve been notified the surgeon general of Mississippi to see if he‟ll endorse the idea. I pass.” (Stocket, 2009: 10)

Not only in the term of facility, had the „Black‟ Americans also separated in opportunity. They lived under poverty, they had to work hard to the „White‟

Americans, and most children had to quit their school. As it seen in Minnie‟s monologue, “I was fourteen years old to the day… I was about to quit school and start my first job” (Stocket, 2009:45).

Therefore, there was a movement proposing the end of racial segregation in

the United States, it was known as African- American Civil Rights. This civil

rights bring benefits to African- American citizen that they are now equal to any

races in the United States. “This was also the time when the word Negro came to

be replaced by the word Black with reference to Afro-Americans. The new

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several new concepts and the phrase that denote them: Black power, Black

studies, Black history, and last but not least, Black English” (Kovecses,2000: 95 -96)

2.Theory of Standard English

The theory of Standard English is used to find out the definition of Standard

English and it is compared to African American Vernacular English. Therefore,

the differences between those two variations of English can be understood.

a. Definition of Standard English

The term „Standard English‟ was established from the dialect of English. The dialect was flourished and used by the educated people. “This dialect became the one preferred by the educated, and it was developed and promoted as model, or

norm, for wider and wider segments of society.” (Wardaugh, 1992:31)

Until today, the term Standard English is considered as the right form of

English. People use Standard English to determine what is right and what is

wrong. Before we judge whether one English is standard or not, we better know

the definition of Standard English first. Standard itself becomes controversy

among linguists.

According to Peter Trudgill, the definitions of Standard English can be

divided into some categories; Standard English is not a language, Standard

English is not an accent, Standard English is not a style, and Standard English is

not register.

Standard English is seen as the language of educated people. Standard English

(1)

no work again, Leroy

gone kill me.‖

27.

―Rumor is you got

some kind a power

prayer, gets better

results than just the

regular variety.‖

Minny Aibileen √

28.

―But that ain’t me,

that’s just prayer.‖

Aibileen Minny √

29.

―You saying people

think I got the black

magic?‖

Aibileen Minny √

30.

―Miss Leefolt ain’t

home right now. May I

take a message?‖

Aibileen Miss Celia √

31.

―She don’t reach you,

she leave a message

with your help.‖

Aibileen Miss Celia √

32.

―You looking for

help?‖

Aibileen Miss Celia √

33.

―I know somebody real

good. She known for

her cooking and she

look after you kids too.

She even got her own

car to drive out to you

house.‖

Aibileen Miss Celia √

34.

―Miss Celia, Miss

Leefolt just walk in and

she say she ain’t

feeling good but for

you to go on and call

Minny. She say she call

you if she be needing

help with the Benefit.‖

Aibileen Miss Celia √

35.

―She say don’t tell

nobodu bout her tip on

Minny, cause all her

friends want a hire her

and they be real upset if

they find out she give

her to somebody else.‖

(2)

36.

―Deaf as doo

-doo and

all a sudden it’s like a

miracle from God, she

hear the phone ringing.

I’m going in and out a

the kitchen, not paying

attention, but at the end

I hear my name. Then

Leroy call and I know

that’s what it was.‖

Minny Aibileen √

37.

―I’m sorry. I wish I

could a called you

earlier so you could

pick up the

phone.‖

Aibileen Minny √

38.

―You done what you

can. Nothing nobody

can do for me now.‖

Minny Aibileen √

39.

―I be praying for you.‖

Aibileen Minny √

40.

―You cooking

something?‖

Minny Miss Celia √

41.

―One of those

upside

down cakes from the

magazine. It ain’t

working out too good.‖

Miss Celia Minny √

42.

―Set down and I’ll

bring you something.‖

Miss Celia Minny √

43.

―Where your people

from?

Minny Miss Celia √

44.

―When you gone have

you some children,

start filling up all these

beds?‖

Minny Miss Celia √

45.

―I mean, kids is the

only thing worth living

for.‖

Miss Celia Minny √

46.

―Yes ma’am. It’s big.

But I got lots a

energy.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

47.

―I ain’t afraid a no

windows. I clean Miss

Walters’ top to

bottom

ever four weeks.‖

(3)

48.

―Well, one… but they’s

a lot to it. Old houses

got a lot a nooks and

crannies, you know.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

49.

―You got a big, pretty

house.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

50.

―All the way out a here

in the country. Lot a

work to be done.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

51.

―You know, I only left

Miss Walters cause she

going up to the rest

home. She didn’t fire

me.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

52. ―When you hear me say I don’t want a clean this house?‖

Minny Miss Celia √

53. ―Miss Celia, I be happy

working for you.‖ Minny Miss Celia √

54. ―Hang on now, we got to

talk about some things first. You got to tell me what days you want me

here and… and that kind a thing.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

55. ―How bout eight. That’s

when Miss Walters used

to get me in.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

56. ―Alright, eight’s real

good.‖ Miss Celia Minny √

57. ―How bout four o’clock? Minny Miss Celia √

58. ―I work eight to four and

I gets some time for lunch or what-have-you.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

59. ―Now… we got to talk

bout pay.‖ Minny Miss Celia √

60. ―What you mean, he

don’t know?‖ Minny Miss Celia √

61. ―And what’s Mister

Johnny gone do if he come home and find a colored woman up in his

kitchen.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

(4)

maid. Last one done got

shot in the head.‖ 63. ―Miss Celia, I think you

done burned up your

cake.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

64. ―You can’t use no towel

on a hot pan.‖ Minny Miss Celia √

65. ―Missus Walters said you

were a real good cook.‖ Miss Celia Minny √

66. ―That old woman eat two

butter beans and say she

full. I couldn’t get her to eat nothing.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

67. ―I’ll leave at three then.

Give myself two hours coming and going so I

can stay out a his way.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

68. ―Mister Johnny ain’t seeing nothing. I’ll throw it out at my house.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

69. ―Good morning, Minng!

It’s real good to see you.‖ Miss Celia Minny √ 70. Miss Celia, fore I get

going here, I need to know. Exactly when you planning on telling Mister Johnny bout me?

Minny Miss Celia √

71. ―By a few, is you

meaning two?‖ Minny Miss Celia √

72. ―You ain’t gone tell him until 1963? No ma’am, before Christmas.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

73. ―That’s a hundred and….sixteen days then.

You gone tell him. A hundred and sixteen days from now

Minny Miss Celia √

74. ―What you know how to

cook already?‖ Minny Miss Celia √

75. ―What else you know

how to do sides corn

pone?‖

Minny Miss Celia √

76. ―You been feeding your

husband grits and corn

pone ever day?‖

Minny Miss Celia √

(5)

anything you ought a

know about cooking, it’s this.‖

78. ―That’s just lard, ain’t

it?‖ Miss Celia Minny √

79. ―No, it ain’t just lard.‖ Minny Miss Celia √

80. ―Ain’t pig. It’s

vegetable.‖ Minny Miss Celia √

81. ―Ain’t just for frying.

You ever get a sticky something stuck in your hair, like gum?

Minny Miss Celia √

82. ―Shoot, I see ladies rub it

under they eyes and on

they husband’s scaly feet.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

83. ―I’m just real grateful

you’re here?‖ Miss Celia Minny √

84. ―Miss Hilly was at Miss Leefolt’s yesterday. She

ask if anybody where you

was working.‖

Aibileen Minny √

85. ―What Leroy say when

you told him you got the

job?‖

Aibileen Minny √

86. ―Shoot. He strut around

the kitchen like a plumed rooster cause he in front a

the kids.‖

Minny Aibileen √

87. ―Leroy got a lot a pride.‖ Aibileen Minny √

88. ―Yeah, I just got to make sure Mister Johnny don’t catch up with me.‖

Minny Aibileen √

89. ―And she ain’t told you why she don’t want him to know?‖

Aibileen Minny √

90. All she say is she want him to think she can do the cooking and the cleaning herself. But that

ain’t why. She hiding something from him.‖

Minny Aibileen √

91. ―You know that Miss

Skeeter?‖ Aibileen Minny √

92. ―I don’t know, she white

just like the rest of em.

(6)

Why? What she say about me?

93. ―Cat got on the porch this

morning, bout give me a Cadillac arrest thinking it

was Mister Johnny.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

94. ―Course, I’s happy. You

happy too. Big house, big yard, husband looking

after you.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

95. ―We’ll do another batch

fore Mister Johnny get

home.‖

Minny Miss Celia √

96. ―Lot a ladies your age in

town.‖ Minny Miss Celia √

97. ―You ain’t having

nothing till supper.‖ Minny Kindra √

98. ―Miss Celia. Mister

Johnny home.‖ Minny Miss Celia √

99. Total 37 60 2