What Had Happened: The Story of AAVE's Rocky Relationship with American Society
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2006
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Swarthmore College. Dept. of Linguistics
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Thesis (B.A.)
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Abstract
This paper investigates the social perceptions of AFRICAN AMERICAN
VERNACULAR ENGLISH (AA VE) while seeking to demonstrate that MONODIALECTAL
speakers of AAVE are greatly disadvantaged, yet fluent BIDIALECTAL speakers of both
AA VE and STANDARD AMERICAN ENGLISH (SAE) are more advantaged than
monodialectal speakers of SAE. This conclusion can be drawn from the examination of
several related topics. There are many factors, such as socioeconomic class, age, and
gender that influence who speaks AA VE and when. It has been argued that AA VE is
simply ungrammatical SAE. In examining these issues, this paper also explains the
history and purports to predict the future of AA VE by viewing court cases, policies and
studies dealing with the use of this dialect in schools. There exists a popUlation of
children who require a more specialized ESL-style of teaching to learn SAE. These
children are typically assumed to be unintelligent and their needs are not met. Upon
entering adulthood, speakers of AAVE who are unaware of or unprepared for society's
opinion of their dialect have difficulty finding upper and mid-level jobs. The final
section of this paper will attempt to explain why bidialectal speakers of AA VE and SAE
choose to continue using AA VE. It has been proven that one dialect is more beneficial
than the other, so why maintain the minority dialect? To uncover the answer, it is
important to understand how and when bidialectal speakers change their dialect and if
there are any advantages in doing so. If AA VE is such a deeply stigmatized dialect, it is
crucial to explore why a bidialectal speaker might choose to continue speaking AA VE.