Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T21:47:43.306Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Objectivity and commitment in linguistic science: The case of the Black English trial in Ann Arbor*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

William Labov
William Labov
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Though many linguists have shown a strong concern for social issues, there is an apparent contradiction between the principles of objectivity needed for scientific work and commitment to social action. The Black English trial in Ann Arbor showed one way in which this contradiction could be resolved. The first decade of research on Black English was marked by violent differences between creolists and dialectologists on the structure and origin of the dialect. The possibility of a joint point of view first appeared in the general reaction of linguists against the view that blacks were linguistically and genetically inferior. The entrance of black linguists into the field was a critical factor in the further development of the creole hypothesis and the recognition of the distinctive features of the tense and aspect system. At the trial, linguists were able to present effective testimony in the form of a unified view on the origins and structural characteristics of the Black English Vernacular and argue for its alidity as an alternate to standard English. (Black English, language and the law.)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , August 1982 , pp. 165 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1982

References

REFERENCES

Anshen, F. (1970). Creoles and copulas. Paper given at Creole Symposium at Fall Meeting of American Anthropological Association, San Diego.Google Scholar
Bailey, B. (1965). A new perspective on American Negro dialectology. American Speech II: 171–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, B. (1966). Jamaican Creole syntax: A transformational approach. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bailey, R. W. (1981). Education and the law: The King case in Ann Arbor. In Smitherman, 1981.Google Scholar
Baratz, J. C., & Barat, S. (1969). Early childhood intervention: The social science basis of institutional racism. Harvard Educational Review 40: 29–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baugh, J. (1977). Afro-American handshakes: A case for kinesic style shifting. Mimeographed.Google Scholar
Baugh, J. (1979). Linguistic style-shifting in Black English. University of Pennsylvania dissertation.Google Scholar
Baugh, J. (1980). A re-examination of the Black English copula. In Labov, W. (ed.) (1980). Pp. 83–106.Google Scholar
Bereiter, C., & Engelmann, S. (1966). Teaching disadvantaged children in the pre-school. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Bickerton, D. (1972). On the structure of polylectal grammars. Monograph Series on Languages and Linguistics 25: 17–42. Washington. D.C.: Georgetown University.Google Scholar
Cedergren, H., & Sankoff, D. (1974). Variable rules: Performance as a statistical reflection of competence. Language 50: 333–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Deutsch, M., Katz, I., & Jensen, A. (eds.) (1968). Social class, race and psychological development. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Dillard, J. L. (1972). Black English. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Fasold, R. (1969). Tense and the form be in Black English. Language 45: 763–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fasold, R. (1972a). Tense marking in Black English. Arlington, Va.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Fasold, R. (1972b). Decreolization and autonomous language change. Florida FL Reporter 10: 9–12.Google Scholar
Ferguson, C. (1971). Absence of copula and the notion of simplicity: A study of normal speech, baby talk and pidgins. In Hymes, D. (ed.), Language in culture and society. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Fickett, J. (1970). Aspects of morphemics, syntax, and semology of an inner-city dialect (Merican). West Rush, N.Y.: Meadowood Publications.Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. (1964). Linguistic and social interaction in two communities. In Gumperz, J. & Hymes, D. (eds.), The ethnography of communication (American Anthropologist Vol. 66, No. 6, Part 2.) Pp. 137–53.Google Scholar
Hand, L. (1939). On receiving an honorary degree. Harvard Alumni Bulletin 41: 1129–31. Reprinted inGoogle Scholar
The spirit of liberty. New York: A. A. Knopf, 1939.Google Scholar
Hoim, J. (1975). Variability of the copula in Black English and its Creole kin. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Hopkins, T. (1979). Syntactic change in de-creolization. Paper given before the Linguistic Society of America, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Jensen, A. (1969). How much can we boost IQ and scholastic achievement? Harvard Educational Review 39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joiner, C. W. (1979). Memorandum Opinion and Order on Civil Action 7–71861, Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School children, et al., vs. Ann Arbor School District Board.Google Scholar
Kovac, C. (1980). Children's acquisition of variable features. Georgetown University dissertation.Google Scholar
Krapp, G. P. (1924). The English of the Negro. American Mercury 2: 190–95.Google Scholar
Kurath, H. (1949). Word geography of the Eastern United States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1965). Some sources of reading problems for speakers of non-standard English. Champaign, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English. Pp. 140–67. Also as Chapter I ofGoogle Scholar
Language in tile inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1966). The social stratfication of English in New York City. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1969a). The logic of non-standard English. In Alatis, J. (ed), Georgetown Monograph on Languages and Linguistics 22. Pp. 1–44.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1969b). Contraction, deletion and inherent variation of the English copula. Language 45: 715–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, W. (1972). Language in the inner city. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (ed.) (1980). Locating language in time, space and society. Quantitative analyses of linguistic structure, Vol. I. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Labov, W., Cohen, P., Robins, C., & Lewis, J. (1968). A study of the non-standard English of Negro and Puerto Rican Speakers in New York City. Cooperative Research Report 3288. Vols. I and II. Philadelphia: U.S. Regional Survey.Google Scholar
Legum, S., Pfaff, C., Tinnie, G., & Nicholas, M. (1972). 1. The speech of young black children in Los Angeles. Inglewood, Calif.: Southwest Regional Laboratory Technical Report 33.Google Scholar
McDavid, R. I. Jr, (1963), with David, W. Maurer (ed). Mencken, H. L., The American Language (4th edition and two supplements, abridged; with annotations and new material). New York: A. A. Knopf.Google Scholar
McDavid, R. I. Jr., (1979). Social differences in white speech. In McCormack, W. & Wurm, S. A. (eds), Language and society. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
McDavid, R. I. Jr, & Davis, L. M. (1972). The dialects of Negro Americans. In Davis, M. E. (ed.), Studies in linguistics in honor of George L. Trager. The Hague: Mouton. Pp. 303–12.Google Scholar
McDavid, R. I. Jr., & McDavid, V. (1951a). The relationship of the speech of American Negroes to the speech of whites. American Speech 26: 3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDavid, R. I. Jr., & McDavid, V. (1951b). Plurals of nouns of measure in the United States. In Marckwardt, A. H. (ed.), Studies in languages and linguistics in honor of Charles C. Fries. Ann Arbor: English Language Institute. Pp. 271–301.Google Scholar
McKinney, E. R. (1972). Letter addressed to Negro leaders on the 56th annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Negro life and history. Mimeographed.Google Scholar
Mitchell-Keman, C. I. (1969). Language behavior in a black urban community. Monographs of the Language-Behavior Research Laboratory, No. 2. Berkeley: University of Califomia.Google Scholar
Moon, H. L. (1971) Black nonsense. The Crisis 26, 04-05.Google Scholar
Rickford, J. (1974). The insights of the mesolect. In DeCamp, D. & Hancock, I. (eds.), Pidgins and Creoles: Current trends and prospects Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Pp. 92–117.Google Scholar
Rickford, J. (1975). Carrying the new wave into syntax: The case of Black English been. In Fasold, R. & Shuy, R. (eds.), Analyzing variation in language. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Pp. 27–58.Google Scholar
Rickford, J. (1979). Variation in a Creole community. Unpublished University of Pennsylvania dissertation.Google Scholar
Rickford, J., & Rickford, A. E. (1976). Cut-eye and suck-teeth: African words and gestures in new world guise. Journal of American Folklore, 07-09.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rustin, B. (1971). Letter of May 29 in The Amsterdam News. Cited in The Crisis, 08 1971. Pp. 175–76.Google Scholar
Sledd, J. (1969). Bi-dialectalism: The linguistics of white supremacy. The English Journal 58: 1307–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sledd, J. (1972). Double-speak: Dialectology in the service of Big Brother. College English, 01.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smitherman, G. (1977). Talkih'and testifyin': The language of black America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co.Google Scholar
Sledd, J. (ed.) (1981). Black English and the education of black children and youth. Proceedings of the National Invitational Symposium on the King decision. Detroit: Center for Black Studies, Wayne State University.Google Scholar
Spears, A. (1980). Come: A modal-like form in Black English. Texas Working Papers in Sociolinguisrics.Google Scholar
Stewart, W. (1965). Urban Negro speech: Sociolinguistic factors affecting English teaching. In Shuy, R. (ed.), Social dialects and language learning. Champaign, III.: National Council of Teachers of English.Google Scholar
Stewart, W. (1967). Sociolinguistic factors in the history of American Negro dialects. Florida FL Reporter 5: 1–7.Google Scholar
Stewart, W. (1968). Continuity and change in American Negro dialects. Florida FL Reporter 6: 3–14.Google Scholar
Torrey, J. (1971). Teaching Standard English to speakers of other dialects. Proceedings of the Second International Congress of Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Turner, L. (1949) Africanisms in the Gullah dialect. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Vaughn-Cooke, A. F. (1976). The implementation of a phonological rule: The case of re-syllabification in Black English. Georgetown University dissertation.Google Scholar
Whiteman, M. F. (ed.) (1980). Reactions to Ann Arbor: Vernacular Black English and education. Washington, D.C.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Williamson, J. V. (1971). A look at Black English. The Crisis 78: 169–76.Google Scholar
Wolfram, W. (1969). A sociolinguistic description of Detroit Negro speech. Arlington, Va.: Center for Applied Linguistics.Google Scholar
Wolfram, W. (1974). The relationship of white Southern speech to Vernacular Black English. Language 50 498–527.CrossRefGoogle Scholar