3 results for "lisa green" in Books
2 - Syntactic variation
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- By Lisa Green
- Edited by Robert Bayley, University of California, Davis, Ceil Lucas, Gallaudet University, Washington DC
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- Book:
- Sociolinguistic Variation
- Published online:
- 16 February 2010
- Print publication:
- 18 October 2007, pp 24-44
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Summary
Introduction
This chapter considers the syntax of dialects of English from a view that incorporates issues in dialectal variation and syntactic theory. Variation in dialects of languages such as Italian, German, Dutch, and Flemish has been analyzed in a model of microparametric variation, which takes into consideration the distribution of syntactic variables in geographical areas and formal analyses of syntactic properties (Barbiers, Cornips, and van der Kleij 2002). On the other hand, research on dialects of American English has focused mainly on morphosyntactic, phonological, and, to some extent, syntactic variables in the context of social factors, linguistic constraints, and variation and change. The focus on questions about origins has led to comparative analysis of dialects and English in early periods. By and large, the topic of variation and change in American English dialects has been the domain of sociolinguistics.
Because one of the goals of sociolinguistics is to understand the correlation between social factors and linguistic variation and ordering of linguistic constraints with respect to variability of rules, variation theory is an integral part of the research paradigm. On the other hand, syntactic theory is not always incorporated in variation analyses, although it is clear that sociolinguists are concerned with theoretical notions of the scientific study of language. Along these same lines, there has not been a tradition of incorporating approaches to variation into syntactic theory (Wilson and Henry 1998).
There have been at least three types of approaches to syntactic variation. The variable rule approach accounts for variability by allowing variable rules to apply in different contexts at different probability levels.
5 - African American English
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- By Lisa Green, University of Texas at Austin
- Edited by Edward Finegan, University of Southern California, John R. Rickford, Stanford University, California
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- Book:
- Language in the USA
- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 24 June 2004, pp 76-91
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Summary
Editors' introduction
This chapter explores the nature of African American English, the single-most studied American English variety over the past three decades, and one that has also been at the center of public controversies involving education. Lisa Green begins by commenting on the profusion of labels this variety has attracted over the years, including “Negro Dialect,” “Black Communications,” and “African American Language” in addition to the “African American English” designation (AAE) she favors. While these terms vary to some extent according to changing social climates and ideologies, the point she emphasizes is that AAE is a linguistic system, with well-defined rules.
After a brief overview of alternative views about the origins of AAE (including the Substratist, Creolist, Anglicist, Founder principle, and Settler principle views), the chapter focuses on its present-day characteristics. While its vocabulary does include current slang (e.g., off the chain ‘good, exciting, outstanding’), familiar mainly to preadolescents and young adults, it also includes general vocabulary known by AAE speakers of all age groups (e.g., saditty ‘conceited, uppity’), and verbal markers like invariant be for a habitual or recurrent activity. Using a single complex sentence, Didn't nobody ask me do I be late for class (‘Nobody asked me if I am usually late for class’), the chapter illustrates characteristic AAE syntactic features like negative inversion, multiple negation, and the formation of embedded yes/no questions.
Under “Sound patterns,” this chapter discusses the restrictions on the occurrences of consonant clusters like -ld and -st (as in wild west) and the alternative realizations of English “th” as /t/, /d/, /f/, or /v/ in AAE. In each case, the processes are not haphazard but systematic and rule-governed.
Language and the African American Child
- Lisa J. Green
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- Published online:
- 05 June 2012
- Print publication:
- 16 December 2010
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How do children acquire African American English? How do they develop the specific language patterns of their communities? Drawing on spontaneous speech samples and data from structured elicitation tasks, this book explains the developmental trends in the children's language. It examines topics such as the development of tense/aspect marking, negation and question formation, and addresses the link between intonational patterns and meaning. Lisa Green shows the impact that community input has on children's development of variation in the production of certain constructions such as possessive -s, third person singular verbal -s, and forms of copula and auxiliary be. She discusses the implications that the linguistic description has for practical applications, such as developing instructional materials for children in the early stages of their education.