7 - Back to the present: verbal -s in the (African American) English diaspora

Summary

Introduction

Of the linguistic features stereotypically associated with African American Vernacular English (AAVE), the variable inflection of present-tense verbs, regardless of grammatical person or number of the subject, illustrated in (1), is among the best documented.

1. (1) First person singular:

2. a. I forgets about it. (SE/009/470)

3. b. I forget the place where he is. (SE/009/1201)

4. Second person singular:

5. c. You speaks fine French (SE/006/256)

6. d. When you speak with me fast, fast I don't … know what you tell me. (SE/006/1421-4)

7. Third person singular:

8. e. When she come out she goes and she takes her children. When she's on vacation well, she remain in the home. (SE/009)

9. First person plural:

10. f. We call her Virgie.

11. (Interviewer: Why?)

12. 'Cause that's the name we calls her. That's her nickname. (SE/006/1643-4)

13. Third person plural:

14. g. They speak the same English. But you see, the English people talks with grammar. (SE/007:1104)

Our initial research into this phenomenon (Poplack and Tagliamonte 1989, 1991) confronted a legacy of different and controversial explanations for the origin and function of verbal -s. Based on its rare occurrence in AAVE third-person-singular contexts, and sporadic appearance elsewhere, early quantitative work (e.g. Fasold 1972; Labov et al. 1968) had characterised it as hypercorrection. Analyses of texts representing older forms of African American English suggested other explanations. Several scholars (Brewer 1986; Jeremiah 1977; Pitts 1981, 1986) reported having detected an aspectual function of verbal -s in the WPA Ex-slave Narratives (Rawick 1972).