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Hypercorrection and grammar change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Carol W. Pfaff
Carol W. Pfaff
Affiliation:
The University of Texas at Austin
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Extract

Pfaff (1973, 1975) reports on 81 low- and middle-income first-grade Black children who produced multiple instances of linguistic variables by answering questions about a set of pictures and telling the story of Goldilocks and the three bears. No models were given of the linguistic variables under investigation, which included a number of third person singular present-tense verb forms: -s inflection of regular verbs, auxiliary and main verb be, auxiliary and main verb have, auxiliary do and possessive marking on nouns. Standard marking of all of these linguistic variables has been shown by previous studies of free conversation to be variably lacking in Black English (Labov, Cohen, Robins & Lewis 1968; Fasold 1972).

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , April 1976 , pp. 105 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

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