linguistic scientist are always take aback by the irresistibly negative and sometimes virulently expressed reaction they get when posit something that every linguist believes ( and linguists do not tally on everything ! ) in a rather uncomplicated way : Every dialect has a grammar .
" Every dialect has a grammar " does not mean " everything is proportional , and allow ’s throw away all the dictionaries , and no one should go to school any longer , and I should be able to wear a bathroom towel to a job consultation if I damn well please . " What it means is that all dialects , from the very fanciest to the one held in lowest esteem , are rule - governed organisation . Here are three representative from three dissimilar commonly disparaged dialects that exemplify how dialects have grammar .
1. Appalachian a-prefixing
One of the most obtrusive features of Appalachian English , which has been studied extensively by the linguists Walt Wolfram and Donna Christian , is the a- prefix that attaches to verbs . When citizenry want to mock " hick " speech , they often spread out a - prefixed words around like " a - goin' " and " a - huntin ' " and " a - fishin ' , " but if they do n’t really speak the dialect , they commonly make mistakes . That is because they do n’t know the rules of where a - prefixing can apply , and where it ca n’t .
principle ? Yes , rules . To someone who speaks an a - prefix dialect this sounds ripe : " He was a - huntin ' . "
But these audio wrong :
He wish a - huntin' . Those a - screamin ' children did n’t chafe me . He makes money by a - buildin ' houses .
It is not the case that a - prefixes can attach to any old discussion ending in -ing . They can bind to verbs , as in the first example . But not to gerund ( a verb serve as a noun for a cosmopolitan action ) , adjective , or objects of preposition , as in the other examples . The fact that those examples sound wrong to dialect speakers picture that there are condition on where a - prefixes can go . The fact that those conditions can be described in full term of verbs , gerund , adjectives , and prepositions show that the conditions have to do with the lingual social organization of sentence . A condition that depends on linguistic anatomical structure is a principle . A system of these ruler is a grammar . This is what linguists mean when they talk about the grammar of a dialect .
People who address this dialect do n’t take these rule from a book . They have it away them implicitly , even if they ca n’t key out them , the same elbow room you know " I gave him a dollar sign " sounds good but " I donated him a dollar bill " go speculative ( even if you ’ve never heard oflinguistic argument social organization ) . Their use of goods and services of the dialect is not whimsical and random , but rule by those rules . Someone who does n’t pursue those rules , for example , in a hamfisted endeavour to bemock the dialect , can be said to be speaking ungrammatical Appalachian English .
2. Southern American English “liketa”
Often features that are seen as miry pronunciations of Standard English show themselves on airless review to be used in a non - squashy , highly consistent direction — but according to a different exercise set of rule . In the Alabama idiom canvass by linguist Crawford Feagin , talker say matter like , " She liketa killed me ! " , stand for that she just about pop out to kill me , but did n’t . This " liketa " is not just a shortening of " would have liked to " ; it ’s also potential to say " I liketa had a heart attack . "
" Liketa " is close to being a substitute for " almost , " but it does n’t behave exactly like that Logos either ; you’re able to postulate " did you almost die ? " but not " did you liketa die ? "
" Liketa " is not just a work-shy reading of Standard English . you’re able to describe the condition for its employment — the rules of " liketa . " As Feagin says , it " fall out in both positive and electronegative sentences , but not in questions and bidding . It may co - occur with the intensifier ' just ' ; it always occurs in the past . " Because rules regularise " liketa , " it is possible to break those rules , and if you do you’re able to be say to be using it ungrammatically .
3. African-American English stressed “BIN”
African - American Englishhas a number of distinguishing features , one of them being the exercise of " stressed BIN , " described by linguist John Rickford . It stock the main strain of the condemnation and is clear-cut from unstressed " been . " It occur in sentence like " she BIN get married , " which does not mean " she has been tie . " It means " she is married , and has been for a long time . "
Stressed BIN is like a remote past tense , something that received English lacks a simple marker for . It can also be used in place where Standard " been " would not fall out , such as " I BIN ate it " ( I eat it a farsighted metre ago ) .
There are morphological shape on where stressed BIN can and can not occur . Its usage is governed by normal . As linguist Lisa Green points out , it ca n’t be moved to the front of the sentence for questions ( BIN John and Lisa dating ? ) or used in a track inquiry at the end ( She BIN married , binn’t she ? ) , and it ca n’t be used with phrases indicating a specific fourth dimension ( I BIN demand him tear that three weeks ago ) . Because there are grammatical condition for the habit of distressed BIN , it is potential to use it the wrong path , as nearly everyone who assay to bemock it does .
More explanations of these phenomenon and others can be found at theYale Grammatical Diversity project , the commission of which is to service as " a essential source of data for the development of possibility of human lingual noesis . " However you find about dialects and whether they are worthy of respect , the fact that human manner of speaking always settle down into rule - governed scheme , all describable in footing of the same set of basic lingual conception — that , at the very least , is middling darn interesting . And frankly , the more you prosecute what ’s interesting about it , the less emotional your judgement about dialects become .
This billet originally appear in 2013 .
