PRATIWI, TIFFANY HANA. African American Vernacular English Used by the Black Housemaids as Seen in a Novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.
Language is an important means in communication. Language is used to express feelings, to deliver a message and even language can be an identity of a society. In one language, we can find some dialects, social or regional dialect. While using a dialect, people can show their social background or regional background. In The Help by Kathryn Stockett, the black housemaids speak in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), which is one of English dialects that exists in America. Their dialect is the most interesting in the novel because it has their own linguistic features that differentiate it to Standard English. The linguistic features include syntactical features, phonological features and lexical features. In addition, the characters in the novel communicate to each other in different cultural background and the linguistic features of African American Vernacular English are not only used by the black housemaids but also used by the white masters.
This research is conducted to answer two problems. First is to analyze the linguistic features of AAVE. Second is to see the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel.
This research was conducted with a contrastive linguistic approach. The data were collected from chapter one to four in the novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The linguistic features were taken from two black housemaid characters, Aibileen and Minny and for the causes of two different cultural communication, the data were taken from the dialogue of a black housemaid to a black housemaid, a black housemaid to a white master and a white master to a white master. After all the data were collected, the categorizations were made using the contrastive linguistic approach to find the linguistic features including syntactical, phonological, and lexical and also to find the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel
ABSTRAK
PRATIWI, TIFFANY HANA. African American Vernacular English Used by the Black Housemaids as Seen in a Novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.
Bahasa merupakan sebuah sarana yang penting dalam berkomunikasi. Bahasa digunakan untuk mengekspresikan perasaan, untuk menyampaikan pesan dan bahkan Bahasa bisa menjadi identitas sebuah masyarakat. Di dalam satu Bahasa kita dapat menemukan beberapa dialek, dialek sosial dan dialek regional. Ketika menggunakan dialek, seseorang dapat menunjukan latar belakang sosial ataupun latar belakang regionalnya. Dalam novel The Help karya Kathryn Stockett, pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam menggunakan African American Vernacular English, yang merupakan salah satu dialek Bahasa Inggris yang ada di Amerika. Dialek merekalah yang membuat novel ini menarik karena memiliki beberapa ciri-ciri linguistik yang berbeda dengan Bahasa Inggris Standar. Ciri-ciri-ciri tersebut yaitu sintaksis, leksikal, dan fonologi. Tambahan pula, karakter-karakter dalam novel ini saling berkomunikasi dalam budaya yang berbeda dan ciri-ciri linguistik African American Vernacular English tidak hanya digunakan oleh pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam tetapi juga oleh majikan berkulit putih.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua permasalahan. Pertama adalah menganalisa ciri-ciri linguistik dari AAVE. Kedua adalah melihat penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda antar para karakter di novel ini.
Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan pendekatan linguistik kontrastif. Data-data untuk penelitian ini diambil dari bab satu hingga bab empat dari novel The Help karya Kathryn Stockett. Untuk ciri-ciri linguistik AAVE diambil dari dua karakter pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam, Aibileen dan Minny dan untuk penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda, data-datanya diambil dari dialog antar sesama pembantu kulit hitam, pembantu kulit hitam dan majikan kulit putih, dan sesama majikan berkulit putih. Jika semua data telah terkumpul, maka kategorisasi dari ciri-ciri yang ada pada dialek AAVE dibuat dengan menggunakan pendekatan linguistik kontrastif untuk menemukan ciri-ciri sintaksis, fonologi, dan leksikal dan untuk menemukan penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda antar para karakter didalam novel.
AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH AS SEEN
IN A NOVEL THE HELP BY KATHRYN STOCKETT
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
In English Letters
By
TIFFANY HANA PRATIWI
Student Number: 114214047
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTER
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
“You may say I'm a dreamer, but
I'm not the only one. I hope
someday you'll join us. And the
orld ill li e as one.”
This thesis is dedicated to
My Beloved Parents
&
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to say my greatest gratitude to Allah SWT for the endless blessing, mercy and chances. I had been through all this time against all the obstacles because I have enormous faith in Allah SWT that my unspoken prayers would be answered. Finally, I can proudly finish my thesis.
I am thankful for having Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A., as my thesis advisor. I would never have done it without his patience, guidance and chances. I am also thankful for having Anna Fitriati, S.Pd., M.Hum, as my co-advisor, for giving me suggestions so I can make my thesis better.
I am so blessed to have so many people who always support me while working on this thesis. For the best supporters in my life, my parents (Agus Priyatno & Sri Adhayanti) and my younger brother (Kevin Dio Armandika), thanks for the encouragement and the motivations. For my best friends, Dian, Veni, Danang, Wahyu, Kak Teguh, Lynka, Mbak Istri, Mbak Eline, Kak Richie, Kak Lola, Mbak Ganis who have been with me these four years, thanks for sharing all the laughter and tears together. Then, I would like to express my gratitude to my very best partner, Hendy. We start it together and finally we made it. Thanks for your endless care, time and support. I am so grateful to have you with me.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
TITLE PAGE………. i
APPROVAL PAGE………. ……. ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE………. iii
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY………. iv
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI………….. v
MOTTO PAGE………... vi
DEDICATION PAGE……… vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS………... ix
ABSTRACT……….... xiii
ABSTRAK………... xiv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION……….. 1
A. Background of the Study………. 1
B. Problem Formulation………... 4
C. Objectives of the Study……… 4
D. Definitions of Terms……… 5
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE A. Review of Related Studies……….. 8
B. Review of Related Theories……… 11
1. Theory of African American Vernacular English……….. 11
a. Definition of African American Vernacular English………... 11
b. Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English... 11
i. Syntactical Features……… 12
a. Preverbal marker of tense, aspect and mood………. 12
b. Verbal tense marking……… 15
c. Nouns and Pronouns………... 17
d. Negation……… 18
e. Questions……….. 20
f. Existential and locative constructions……….. 21
ii. Phonological Features………. 22
iii. Phonological Processes………... 25
a. Assimilation………... 25
b. Dissimilation………. 25
c. Segment insertion rules………. 26
d. Segment deletion rules………... 26
e. Movement (Metathesis)………. 26
iv. Lexical Features………... 26
a. Kitchen………... 27
c. Mannish and Womanish……… 28
d. Get over……… 28
e. Come………. 28
f. Mash………... 29
g. Some………. 29
c. History of African American Vernacular English………... 29
2. Theory of Standard English………... 33
a. Definition of Standard English……… 33
3. Theory of Speech Accommodation………... 35
4. Theory of Speech Modification Strategies………... 37
5. Theory of the Components of Communicative Events………. 37
C. Theoretical Framework……….. 38
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY……….. 40
A. Object of the Study………. 40
B. Approach of the Study……… 41
C. Method of the Study………... 42
1. Data Collection………... 42
2. Data Analysis……….. 43
CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS RESULTS AND DISCUSSION……… 45
A. Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English seen in the novel……… 45
1. Syntactical Features………... 45
a. The Use of Copula……… 46
i. The absence of the copula……… 47
ii. The use of singular copula is/ ‘s following the first-person singular pronoun I………... 47
iii. The use of singular copula to use with third-person plural personal pronoun………. 48
iv. The use of plural copula with third person singular pronoun………. 49
v. The use of singular copula to use with plural noun………. 50
b. The use of be……………. 50
i. Be to indicate future……….. 51
ii. Be to replace copula………. 51
c. Multiple functions of a………... 52
i. A function as to infinitive……….52
ii. A function as preposition of………... 53
iii. A function as preposition at………... 53
iv. A function as auxiliary have………... 54
d. Verbal tense marker………. 54
ii. The adding of suffix -ed/d in the irregular verb………. 55
iii. The use of present tense verb to state past tense verb………. 56
iv. The use of past participle verb to indicate past tense verb………... 57
v. The Absence of auxiliary have/ has/ had in the perfect tense……… 57
vi.The use of done to indicate completed action………. 58
vii.The use of gone to indicate future………. 58
viii. The use of to be + on + v-ing to indicate future………….. 59
e. Noun marker………... 60
i. The adding of suffix –s to irregular plural noun ………... 60
ii. The absence of article……….. 61
f. Pronoun Marker……… 61
i. The generalization of subject pronoun as possessive pronoun……… 62
ii. The use of object pronoun them to indicate the……….. 62
iii. The absence of relative pronoun……… 63
iv. The use of pronoun they as existential / locative marker……… 63
g. Negation……….. 64
i. The use of ain’t………... 64
ii. Double or multiple negation……… 65
iii. The use of ain’t but or don’t but to indicate only………. 66
2. Phonological features………. 67
a. Assimilation……….. 67
b. Deletion……… 67
c. Deletion and insertion rules……….. 69
3. Lexical Features………. 70
a. The use of real as intensifier………... 71
b. The use of set instead of sit……… 72
c. The use of get/ got to instead of have /had to……… 73
d. The use of fix instead of make……… 73
e. The use of idiomatic expressions………... 74
B. The causes of two different cultural communication among the characters………... 75
1. A black housemaid to a black housemaid………. 75
2. A black housemaid to a white master……… 78
3. A white master to a white master………... 83
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION……….. 86
APPENDICES………..93 Appendix 1: The Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English and the Comparison to Standard English…….94 Appendix 2: The Characters and the Total Use of African American Vernacular English Linguistic Features………148 Appendix 3: The Expressions of African American Vernacular
ABSTRACT
PRATIWI, TIFFANY HANA. African American Vernacular English Used by the Black Housemaids as Seen in a Novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.
Language is an important means in communication. Language is used to express feelings, to deliver a message and even language can be an identity of a society. In one language, we can find some dialects, social or regional dialect. While using a dialect, people can show their social background or regional background. In The Help by Kathryn Stockett, the black housemaids speak in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), which is one of English dialects that exists in America. Their dialect is the most interesting in the novel because it has their own linguistic features that differentiate it to Standard English. The linguistic features include syntactical features, phonological features and lexical features. In addition, the characters in the novel communicate to each other in different cultural background and the linguistic features of African American Vernacular English are not only used by the black housemaids but also used by the white masters.
This research is conducted to answer two problems. First is to analyze the linguistic features of AAVE. Second is to see the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel.
This research was conducted with a contrastive linguistic approach. The data were collected from chapter one to four in the novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. The linguistic features were taken from two black housemaid characters, Aibileen and Minny and for the causes of two different cultural communication, the data were taken from the dialogue of a black housemaid to a black housemaid, a black housemaid to a white master and a white master to a white master. After all the data were collected, the categorizations were made using the contrastive linguistic approach to find the linguistic features including syntactical, phonological, and lexical and also to find the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel
ABSTRAK
PRATIWI, TIFFANY HANA. African American Vernacular English Used by the Black Housemaids as Seen in a Novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2015.
Bahasa merupakan sebuah sarana yang penting dalam berkomunikasi. Bahasa digunakan untuk mengekspresikan perasaan, untuk menyampaikan pesan dan bahkan Bahasa bisa menjadi identitas sebuah masyarakat. Di dalam satu Bahasa kita dapat menemukan beberapa dialek, dialek sosial dan dialek regional. Ketika menggunakan dialek, seseorang dapat menunjukan latar belakang sosial ataupun latar belakang regionalnya. Dalam novel The Help karya Kathryn Stockett, pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam menggunakan African American Vernacular English, yang merupakan salah satu dialek Bahasa Inggris yang ada di Amerika. Dialek merekalah yang membuat novel ini menarik karena memiliki beberapa ciri-ciri linguistik yang berbeda dengan Bahasa Inggris Standar. Ciri-ciri tersebut yaitu sintaksis, leksikal, dan fonologi. Tambahan pula, karakter-karakter dalam novel ini saling berkomunikasi dalam budaya yang berbeda dan ciri-ciri linguistik African American Vernacular English tidak hanya digunakan oleh pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam tetapi juga oleh majikan berkulit putih.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua permasalahan. Pertama adalah menganalisa ciri-ciri linguistik dari AAVE. Kedua adalah melihat penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda antar para karakter di novel ini.
Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan pendekatan linguistik kontrastif. Data-data untuk penelitian ini diambil dari bab satu hingga bab empat dari novel The Help karya Kathryn Stockett. Untuk ciri-ciri linguistik AAVE diambil dari dua karakter pembantu rumah tangga berkulit hitam, Aibileen dan Minny dan untuk penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda, data-datanya diambil dari dialog antar sesama pembantu kulit hitam, pembantu kulit hitam dan majikan kulit putih, dan sesama majikan berkulit putih. Jika semua data telah terkumpul, maka kategorisasi dari ciri-ciri yang ada pada dialek AAVE dibuat dengan menggunakan pendekatan linguistik kontrastif untuk menemukan ciri-ciri sintaksis, fonologi, dan leksikal dan untuk menemukan penyebab komunikasi antar dua budaya yang berbeda antar para karakter didalam novel.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Language plays an important role in human communication. Human communication also has developed from centuries ago. In the ancient‟ history, human carved the rock surface to form symbols in order to communicate with others, but now time has changed, humans no longer carved the rock but they use spoken or written language to communicate with others.
Language in today‟s world is so diverse. Countries have their own language as their identity or the language was influenced by historical background such as the colonialists‟ language. Understanding language is complex, because
within one language sometimes it has more than one dialects. “The term dialect refers, strictly speaking, to differences between kinds of language, which are differences of vocabulary and grammar, as well as pronunciation” (Trudgill, 2000: 5). English, for example, it has many dialects spread across the world such as British English, American English, Singaporean English and many more, which make English as the most spoken language in the world.
During the period when African Americans were generally called Negroes, terms such as Negro Dialect, Non-standard Negro English, and American Negro Speech could be heard. Nowadays Afro American English, African American English (AAE), African American Language, and African American Vernacular English (AAVE). There are also several names with the word „Black‟ contained in them that can be heard: Black Communication, Black Dialect, Black Folk Speech, Black Street Speech, Black English (fairly common), Black English Vernacular, and Black Vernacular English. (Jokinen, 2008: 1).
The controversies of African American Vernacular English are about the origin, the development, or the issue that states African American Vernacular English as the non-Standard English with mistakes. In the past, people had given negative labels to African American Vernacular English, which was maligned as “disgusting black street slang; incorrect and substandard; nothing more than ignorance; lazy English; bastardized English; the language of illiteracy and this utmost ridiculous made-up language” (Rickford, 2000: 6). The language can survive until now but the negative labels are still with African American Vernacular English especially for those who do not study language. For linguists, those who are majoring human language, they definitely see African American Vernacular English as one of English dialects. Unfortunately, for non-linguists, they tend to see African American Vernacular English as bad version of English, which can lead to racial or social segregation.
educated English used within the triangle drawn with its apexes at London, Cambridge and Oxford” (Wright, 2000:49). Due to colonization, English spread across the world and used in many countries. In English-speaking countries, they establish their own standard so there is no official rule to determine Standard English as long as the English is acceptable in certain region. According to Peter Trudgill, Standard English “is thus not the English language but simply variety of it” (Trudgill, 1999: 118).
Standard English is seen as the language of educated people. The language that can be obtained in academic institution or academic processes. However, the word „Standard‟ becomes a controversy among linguists. Standard English could be
meant as any variety of English that is accepted as national standard in any English-speaking countries. Peter Trudgill, a sociolinguist, said that Standard English is a variety of English language.
Standard English, whatever it is, is less than a language, since it is only one variety of English, in all sorts of ways: it is the variety associated with education system in all the English speaking countries of the world, and is therefore the variety of spoken by those who are often referred to as „educated people; and it is the variety taught to non-native learners. Standard English is thus not the English language but simply variety of it (Tridgill, 1999: 118).
The Help by Kathryn Stockett was firstly published in 2009. This novel is about the housemaids‟ life in 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi through the
The purpose of this research is to introduce the non-linguist readers that African American Vernacular English as one of English dialect has some linguistic features as their identity. Therefore, three aspects of African American Vernacular English that were analyzed in this thesis include the syntactical aspect, the phonological aspects and the lexical aspects. Then, those aspects were also compared to Standard English. Finally, this thesis included the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel.
B. Problem Formulations
The study focuses on two-problem formulation as follows:
1. What linguistic features of African American Vernacular English are shown in novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett?
2. What are the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters in the novel?
C. Objectives of the Study
Vernacular English is not a non-standard English with mistakes. African American Vernacular English is a variation of English that exists in America and the linguistic features are their identity.
The second problem is about the causes of two different cultural communication among the characters. In the communications between two characters, whose different in cultures show that the characters adapt to each other, this part is conducted to find the causes. This part involves the comparison in the communication among the characters: a black housemaid to a black housemaid, a black housemaid to a white master, and a white master to a white master.
D. Definition of Terms
1. African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English is a term that refers to one of English dialects, spoken by African-Americans. “Known also by a succession names from Black English to Black Vernacular English, Afro-American English, and Ebonics.” (Flora, 2002:21). Trudgill also explains in his bookSociolingustics:
linguistic features including syntactical, phonological and lexical. Those features make African American Vernacular English different to Standard English.
2. Standard English
English is the most used language and becomes the international language. “Spoken by more than 380 million people in the United Kingdom, the United States, and the former British empire, it is the largest of the Western languages”
(Baugh and Cable, 2002:4). In English-speaking countries, they establish their own standard of English. It is taught in education fields, used by the media and by the government. Simply of it, there is no official rule to determine Standard English as long as the English is accepted in certain region. Standard English “is thus not the English language but simply variety of it” (Trudgill, 1999: 118).
Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that carries most prestige within a country. „Prestige‟ is a social concept, whereby some people have high
standing in the eyes of others, whether this derives from social class, political strength, popular acclaim, or education background. The English that these people choose to use will, by the very fact, become the standard within their communication (Crystal, 2005:110).
3. Linguistic Features
Phonology is a study of the sound pattern of language (Fromkin et al, 2011: 227). This study describes how words are pronounced in a language. The sound system of a language and the processes of how it is pronounced are discussed in phonological.
Syntax is another important aspect in studying language. Syntax is the study of “how words are put together to build phrases, and with how clauses are put together to build sentences.” (Miller, 2002: xii). Syntax is needed to construct
words into phrases or sentences so the speaker can transfer messages to the listener and the listener can understand the messages well.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter is divided into four parts, they are review of related studies, review of related theories, and theoretical framework. The review of related studies will elaborate the studies that have been done by the other researchers in related with the topic. The review of related theories will conclude the theories that are used in solving the problems. Theoretical framework is the part of explaining the role of the related theories in order to answer the problems.
A. Review of Related Studies
In this part, there will be several studies of the previous researchers, which still related to the topic of this research. The studies also discuss about African American Vernacular English but in different sources. These related studies are important in order to elaborate the analysis.
1. A graduate thesis entitled The African American English in Georgia Doyle Johnson‟s Frederick Douglas and Loraine Hansberry‟s „A Raisin in the Sun/ by Nizmanuddin Sadiq. The purpose of his thesis is to comprehend and describe the forms of particular variety of informal English that is African American English.
To achieve the purpose, he includes the distinctive features of African American Vernacular English shown in the novels based on phonological, morph-syntactical and lexical items then compares those features to Standard English.
His thesis is helpful as a guidance for this thesis. There are some findings which similar to the findings of this thesis. However, some items that are not existed in the Sadiq‟s thesis will be revealed in this thesis.
2. An undergraduate thesis entitled A Phonological Analysis of Black English in 50 Cent‟s Song Lyrics in the Album „Curtis‟ by Estu Kuncoro Ismarono. The focus of this thesis is on the phonological features of Black English. The purpose of Ismarono‟s thesis is to know phonological processes of Black English that lead to different spelling.
To achieve the purpose, Ismarono firstly analyzes the each word of the lyrics into phonological process. After that, Ismarono can derive the characteristics of Black English phonology.
The difference between Ismarono‟s thesis and this thesis lie on the focus. We
discuss the same topic, which is African American Vernacular English or Black English, but Ismarono only focusses on the phonological features. The other difference also lies on the form of the work. Ismarono uses 50 Cent‟s songs so he can hear how the singer produces the sound. Meanwhile, this thesis uses a novel, which is written. Therefore, this thesis needs to use orthography theory.
The findings of Ismarono‟s thesis are guidance to the phonological features. His findings of phonological process are quite complete. It helps this thesis to elaborate more about phonological processes happen to African American Vernacular English.
Leonna Hertanu. In her thesis, she discusses three problems; the expressions of Black English, the linguistics features, and the social factors.
The linguistics features found in Hertanu‟s findings are also helpful as the guideline of this thesis. Hertanu‟s thesis tries to see the social factors that influence the use of Black English in the movies. The setting of the movies is in 2000s and the social factors that are discussed include gender relation and power relation. Gender relations examine the relations of male-to-male or male to female relationship. Power relations in Hertanu‟s analysis will include the relation of same or equal position, high position and low position to the speakers. The same or equal position elaborates the relation among friends in the equal position. The high position in Hertanu‟s analysis will discuss the position of one character is higher than the other in family context. The low position in these movies are shown when one character is richer than the other character.
B. Review of Related Theories
Those theories below are theories needed to conduct this research.
1. The theory of African American Vernacular English
The focus of this research is on African American Vernacular English. So the theory of African American Vernacular English will discuss about the definition, the linguistic features and the history. Those will be beneficial to conduct the analysis of this research.
a Definition of African American Vernacular English
African American Vernacular English is one of English dialects that spoken by African-Americans. Some labels have been given to African American Vernacular English, such as Black English (BE), Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Non-standard Negro English. African American Vernacular English also have many varieties, including “the Krio of Sierra Leone, Caribbean creole,
the Gullah dialect on the coast of South Caroline, American Black English and other” (Kovecses, 2000: 94).
A variety of English has some linguistic features as the identity but has been underestimated for decades and has been seen distinctively from Standard English. “The term African American Vernacular English is generally used to refer to the nonstandard English spoken by lower-class African American (Trudgill, 2000:52).
b.Linguistic Features of African American Vernacular English
vocabularies and grammar as well as pronunciation” (Trudgill, 2000:5). As one of English dialects, African American Vernacular English also has its own linguistic features as their characteristics that differentiate it from other varieties of English dialects.
The linguistic features of African American Vernacular English used in this research taken from Rickford‟s table of distinctive features as seen in his book African American Vernacular English (for syntactical and phonological features) and from Lisa J. Green‟s book entitled African American English (for lexical aspect)
i. Syntactical Features
The most frequent linguistic features of African American Vernacular English in this novel are the syntactical aspect. According to Miller, the definition of syntax “has to do with how words are put together to build phrases, and with how clauses are put together to build sentences.” (Miller, 2002: xii). Syntax is needed to construct words into phrases or sentences so the speaker can transfer messages to the listener and the listener can understand the messages well.
a. Preverbal marker of tense, aspect and mood
which are perfect and progressive. Mood itself in English verb also known as modality and it can be divided into three: indicative, subjunctive and imperative. Each tense, aspect and modal has their own markers to be used in certain situation. In African American Vernacular English, the marker of tense, mood and aspect are found missing or use differently, as in:
a. The absence of copula/ auxiliary is and are for present tense states and actions as in “He
ø
tall” For SE “He‟stall” or “Theyø
running” for Standard English “They are running” (Rickford, 1999:6).The function of a copula in Standard English is to link nonverbal predicates (i.e., nouns, adjectives, and certain adverbials) with their subjects and serves as a carrier for tense and subject verb agreement(Celce-murcia, 1983:33-34).b. The use of invariant be (sometimes bees) for habitual aspect, as in “He be walkin” (usually, regularly, versus “He
ø
walkin” right now) for Standard English “He is usually walking/ usually walks.” (Rickford, 1999: 6).c. The use of invariant be for future “will be,” as in “He be here tomorrow,” This is essentially a result of the phonological rule deleting the contracted „ll of will. (Rickford, 1999: 6). Be in Standard English can be placed in simple future tense or future progressive after will. For example: “He will be here in
an hour” (simple future), “He will bewalking to school at 8 a.m. tomorrow”
(future progressive) (Celce-murcia, 1983: 64).
(Rickford, 1999:6). While in Standard English, continues aspect is marked by placing be (present: is, am, are or past: was, were) and followed by V-ing. e. Use of unstressed been or bin for Standard English “Has/have been” (present
perfect), as in “he beensick” for Standard English “he has been sick.” Unlike stressed BIN, unstressed been can co-occur with time adverbials (e.g. “since last week”) and does not connote remoteness (Rickford, 1999: 6).
f. Use of stressed BIN to mark remote phase (that the action happened or the state came into being long ago) as in “She BIN married” for Standard English “She has been married for a long time (and still is),” or “He BIN ate it” for
Standard English “He ate it a long time ago. (Rickford, 1999:6).
g. Use of doneto emphasize the completed nature of action, as in “He done did it” for Standard English “He‟s already done it.” (Rickford, 1999:6). Done in Standard English is past participle of do, and it is usedin perfective sentence to describe a completed action. In African American Vernacular English, done can co-occur with been, as in “By the time I got there, he been done gone” or, in the reverse order, “They done been sitting there an hour” (Rickford, 1999: 6).
h. Use of be done for resultatives or the future/ conditional perfect, as in “She be done had her baby” for Standard English “She will have had her baby” (Rickford, 1999: 6).
j. Use of had to mark the simple past (primarily among preadolescents) as in
“then we had went outside” for SE “then we went outside” (Rickford, 1999:
6). In Standard English, had is used as perfective aspect marker. In past tense is marked by the regular form of past tense verb (V-ed) or the irregular form of verb.
k. Use of double modals, as may can, might can, might could (common in Southern White vernaculars) for Standard English “might be able to” or must don‟t (more unique to AAVE) for Standard English “must not” (Rickford, 1999: 6). Single modal is more common to Standard English speaker.
l. Use of quasi modals liketa and poseta, as in “I liketa drowned” for Standard English “I nearly drowned” and “You don‟t poseta do it that way” for SE “You‟re not supposed to do it that way” (Rickford, 1999:7).
b. Verbal tense marking:
In the Standard English, tense brings its own characteristics. English verbs are also known for its regularity and irregularity. Regular verb means the form of the past tense and past participle of the verb is same with suffix –d/ed. In irregular verb, the past tense and the past participle of the verb has different pattern. The present tense uses the base of the verb or V1 and the third person singular use V1 + s/es. The past tense use past verb or V2. In perfective, it uses past participle or V3. In African American Vernacular English, the markers of the verb tense are found different to Standard English as follows:
don‟t sing” or have instead of “has” as in “She have it” is related, since
“doesn‟t” and “hasn‟t” include third singular –s (Rickford, 1999: 7). In simple present tense which refers to present time. The verb after the third person singular (he, she, it) should be ended by –s (Quirk et al, 1972:85).
b. Generalization of is and was to use with plural and second person subjects (i.e., instead of are and were) as in “They is some crazy folk” for Standard English “They are crazy folk” or “We was there” for Standard English “We were there” (Rickford, 1999: 7).
c. Use of past tense or preterite form (V-ed) as past participle (V-en), as in “He had bit” for Standard English “He had bitten,”or “She has ran” for Standard English “She has run” (Rickford, 1999: 7). To form perfective sentences, it needs have/ has/ had + past participle. The form of past participle itself can be divided into regular verb, it is usually ended with –d/-ed and irregular verb, there are not basic rules to form it.
d. Use of past participle form (V-en) as past tense or preterite form (V-ed), as in “She seen him yesterday” for Standard English “She saw him yesterday” (Rickford, 1999: 7). On the contrast of above characteristic, which shows the use of past tense as past participle, African American Vernacular English speaker usually uses past participle form (V-en) as past tense.
e. Use of verb stem (V) as past tense or preterite form (V-ed), as in “He come
down here yesterday” for Standard English “He came down here yesterday.”
c. Nouns and pronouns.
A noun is a word that refers to a person, an animal, a place, a thing, an activity, or quality. In Standard English nouns, the marker of singular or plural noun is clear, which is by using suffix –s for plural or not using suffix –s for singular. Otherwise, in African American Vernacular English the marker of singular or plural noun in some situation is absent.
A pronoun is a word that replaces nouns or noun phrases. Pronoun in Standard English can be divided into several types. In African American Vernacular English, the pronouns are somewhat different.
Those differences of African American Vernacular English and Standard English in nouns and pronouns can be seen in the following characteristics:
a. Absence of possessive –s, as in “John
ø
house” for Standard English “John‟s house” (Rickford, 1999: 7). To show possessive in Standard English, it needs „safter the subject whose own the object.b. Absence of plural –s, as in “two boy
ø
” for Standard English “two boys.” (Rickford, 1999: 7). The plural form of noun in Standard English is marked by the final –s/ -es after the noun. For example: “horses”, “languages”, “heroes” (Quirk et al, 1972:172).c. Use of and (th)em or nem, usually after a proper name, to mark associative plurals, as in “Felicia an‟ (th)em” or “Felician nem” for “Felician and her friend or family or associates (Rickford, 1999: 7).
For African American Vernacular English, the use of appositive or pleonastic pronouns is common, as seen in the above example, she refers to that teacher even if she is omitted from the sentence as seen in the example of Standard English, the sentence is acceptable.
e. Use of y‟all and they to mark second person plural and third plural possessive respectively, as in “It‟s y‟all ball” for Standard English “It‟s your ball” and “It‟s they house” for Standard English “It‟s their house” (Rickford, 1999: 7). To show possessive in Standard English, regularly the speaker use the possessive pronouns such as my, your, his, her, their, our.
f. Use of object pronouns (me, him, and so on) after a verb as personal datives
(=”(for) myself,” “(for) himself‟ and so on) as in “Ahma git me a gig” for
Standard English “I‟m going to get myself some support” (Rickford, 1999: 8).
g. Absence of relative pronoun (who, which, what, that) as in “That‟s the man ø
come here” for Standard English “That‟s the man who came here.” Note that
the omitted form is a subject relative pronoun (who). Many varieties of English allow for the omission of object relative pronoun, e.g. “That‟s the
man (whom) I saw,” but the omission of subject relatives is rarer, and more
unique to African American Vernacular English (Rickford, 1999: 8).
d. Negation
use ain‟t. Other characteristics of making negative sentence of African American Vernacular English can be seen as follows:
a. Use of ain‟t as general preverbal negator, for Standard English “am not,” “isn‟t.” “aren‟t,” “hasn‟t,” “haven‟t,” and “didn‟t” as in “He ain‟t here” for
Standard English “He isn‟t here,” or “He ain‟tdo it” for Standard English “He didn‟t do it” (Rickford, 1999: 8). Negation of simple sentence in Standard English is accomplished by inserting the word not between the operator and the predication (Quirk et al, 1972: 374).
b. Multiple negation or negative concord (that is, negating the auxiliary verb and all indefinite pronouns in the sentence), as in “He don‟t do nothing” for Standard English “He doesn‟t do anything” (Rickford, 1999: 8). Multiple negation can be happened in Standard English but the effect is different from multiple negation in African American Vernacular English. They use more than one negative form but the result is a single negative. In Standard English, when it has multiple negation it results in a positive sentence. In African American Vernacular English, they tend to use the negative word, while in Standard English, they tend to use a non-assertive word after a negative. For example: “No one never said nothing” (multiple negation) could be meant “No one ever said anything” in Standard English (Quirk et al, 1972: 379).
c. Negative inversion (inversion of the auxiliary and indefinite pronoun subject),
as in “Can‟t nobodysay nothing” (inverted from “Nobody can‟t say nothing”
(From “Nobody ain‟t home”) for Standard English “Nobody is home” (Rickford, 1999: 8)
d. Use of ain‟t but or don‟t but for “only”, as in “He ain‟t but fourteen years old” for Standard English “He‟s only fourteen years old” or “They didn‟t take but three dollars” for Standard English “They only took three dollars” (Rickford, 1999: 8). In African American Vernacular English ain‟t but or don‟t butare used to replace “only”. In Standard English, “only” can be used in an implied negative statement.
e. Questions
Forming questions in Standard English is by placing wh-question then is followed by the auxiliary verb. Below are some characteristics of African American Vernacular English in making questions:
b. Auxiliary verb inversion in embedded questions (without if or whether), as in
“I asked him couldhe go with me” for Standard English “I asked him if he
could go with me” (Rickford, 1999: 8). In Standard English to form an embedded / indirect question normally uses “if” or “whether”.
f. Existential and locative constructions
Existential and locative constructions are used to show the existence and location of something being referred. Existential sentences are principally those beginning with the unstressed word there, and are so called because when unstressed there is followed by a form of the verb be, the clause expresses the notion of existence (Quirk et al: 1972: 958)
In the following characteristics of African American Vernacular English on the existential and locative construction will show the differences to Standard English:
a. Use of existential it (is,„s, was, ain‟t) instead of there (is, „s, was, isn‟t) as in “It‟s a school up there” for Standard English “There‟s a school up there” (Rickford, 1999: 8).
b. Use of existential they got as plural equivalent of singular it is, instead of there are, as in “They got some hungry women here” (line from a Nina Simone song) for Standard English “There are some hungry women here” (Rickford, 1999: 9).
showed me her artwork) for Standard English “Here‟s my own” (Rickford, 1999: 9).
ii. Phonological features
Phonological means it has relation to sound. Every language produces their own phonological identity that means the sound that they produce may have some differences. Therefore, it needs phonology to understand the sound of a language. a. Reduction of word-final consonant clusters (i.e., sequences of two or more consonants), especially those ending in t and d, as in han‟ for Standard English “hand”, des‟ for Standard English “desk”, pos‟ for Standard English “post”, and pass‟ for Standard English “passed” (the –ed suffix in “passed” is pronounced as [t]) (Rickford, 1999: 4).
b. Deletion of word-final single consonant (especially nasals) after a vowel, as in ma‟ [mæ] for Standard English “man,” ca‟ [kæ] for Standard English “cat” and ba‟ [bæ:] for Standard English “bad” (Rickford, 1999: 4)
c. Devoicing of word final voiced stops after a vowel, i.e., realization of [b] as [p], [d] as [t], and [g] as [k], as in [bæt] for Standard English [bad], and [pik] for Standard English “pig”. The devoiced consonant may be followed or replaced by a glottal stop. (Rickford, 1999:4).
d. Realization of finale ng as n in gerunds, e.g. walkin‟ for Standard English “walking” (Rickford, 1999:4)
f. Realization of voiced th [ð] as d or v, as in den for Standard English “then”, and bruvver for Standard English “brother” (Rickford, 1999: 4).
g. Realization of thr sequences as th, especially before [u] or [o],as in thodown [Өodaun] for Standard English “throwdown.” (Rickford, 1999:4).
h. Deletion or vocalization (pronunciation as s weak neutral vowel) of l after a vowel, as in he‟p for Standard English “help”, and toah for Standard English “toll”. May have the grammatical effect of deleting the “ll” of contracted will,
as in “He be here tomorrow” for Standard English “He‟ll be here tomorrow,”
especially when the following word begins with labial b, m or w. (Rickford, 1999:5)
i. Deletion or vocalization of r after a vowel as in sistuh for Standard English “‟sister” or fouh for Standard English “four.” This rule applies more often when r comes at the end of a word and is followed by a word beginning with a consonant (four posts) rather than a word beginning with a vowel (four apples), but it also can apply when a vowel follows within the same word, as in Ca‟ol for Standard English “Carol” or sto‟y for Standard English “story”. Grammatical effects may include the use of they for Standard English possessive “their” (Rickford, 1999:5)
k. Deletion of unstressed initial and medial syllables, as in „fraid for Standard English “afraid” and sec‟t‟ry for Standard English “secretary”. (Rickford, 1999: 5)
l. Metathesis or transposition of adjacent consonants, as in aks for Standard English “ask” (Rickford, 1999:5)
m. Realization of Standard English v and z (voiced fricatives) as d and z respectively (voiced stops), especially in word-medial position before a nasal, as in seben in Standard English “seven” and idn‟ for Standard English “isn‟t” (Rickford, 1999:5)
n. Realization of syllable-initial str as skr, especially before high front vowels like “ee” [i], as in skreet for Standard English “street” and deskroy for “destroy” (Rickford, 1999:5)
o. Monophthongal pronunciation of ay and oy, as in ah for Standard English “I” and boah for Standard English “boy” (Rickford, 1999: 5)
p. Neutralization/ merger of [լ ] and [ε] before nasals, as in [pɩ n] for Standard English “pin” and “pen” (Rickford, 1999:5)
q. Realization of “ing” as “anf” and “ink” as “ank” in some words, as in thang for Standard English “thing”, sang for Standard English “sing”, and drank for Standard English “drink” (Rickford, 1999: 5).
s. More varied intonation, with “higher pitch range and more rising level final contours” than other American English varieties. (Rickford, 1999:5).
iii. Phonological Processes
Above is how the phonological features of African American Vernacular English different to Standard English. Here is the phonological processes or also known as rules of phonology, is “the relationship between the phonemic
representation of a word and its phonetic representation or how it is pronounced”
(Fromkin et al, 2003:244). This part will show the processes of phonology that happen in the differences of pronunciation.
a. Assimilation.
According to Fromkin et al, assimilation is “a rule that makes neighboring
segments more similar by duplicating a phonetic property” (246). In other words,
it‟s a phonological process to make the words are easy to be pronounced. For example: “the voiced /z/ of the English regular plural suffix is changed to [s] after
a voiceless sound, and that similarly the voiced /d/ of the English regular past tense suffix is changed to /t/ after a voiceless sound. (Fromkin et al, 2003:247).
b. Dissimilation.
Dissimilation is a process “in which a segment becomes less similar to
another segment” (248). This kind of process occurs when it‟s difficult to
pronounce repeated similarly sound. For example: sequences /fθ/ and /sθ/ changing them to /ft/ and /st/. Here the fricative /θ/ becomes dissimilar to the
c. Segment Insertion Rules.
It‟s a process of inserting a consonant or vowel, is called epenthesis. The
rules for forming regular plurals, possessive forms, and third-person regular verb agreement in English all require an epenthesis rule. It can be seen for plural formulation: Insert a [ə] before the plural morpheme /z/ when a regular noun ends in a sibilant, giving [əz] (Fromkin et al, 2003:250).
d. Segment deletion rules.
Segment deletion rules are commonly found in many languages and are far more prevalent than segment insertion rules. One such rule occurs in casual or rapid speech. We often delete the unstressed vowels that are show in words like the following: mystery,general, memory, funeral, vigorous, Barbara. These words in casual speech sound as if they were written: mystry, genral, memry, funral, vigrous, Barbra (Fromkin et al, 2003:251)
e. Movement (Metathesis).
Phonological rules may also reorder sequences of phonemes, in which case they are called metathesis rules. For some speakers of English, the word ask is pronounced [æks], but the word asking is pronounced [æskiŋ]. In this case, a metathesis rule reorders the /s/ and /k/ in certain context (Fromkin et al, 2003:253).
iv. Lexical Features
speakers use the same vocabularies as the other English varieties‟ speakers. However, the meanings of the vocabularies are some found different. Those will differentiate African American Vernacular English from other English varieties.
The African American lexicon includes the same type of information that is found in the general American lexicons. The difference is the former lexicon will have entries for words that sound like words in general American English: however, the meaning and perhaps other information will be different from the corresponding homonyms in general American lexicon. (Green, 2002: 20)
Lisa J. Green in her book entitled African American English shows some lexical differences that found in African American Vernacular English. She explained the lexical differences, the meaning and the comparison to mainstream English. Those will be shown on the following examples:
a. Kitchen.
According to Green, kitchen in African American Vernacular English can be meant as nappy hair around the nape of the neck, especially on women or girls (2002:16). In Standard English, bd on The New Webster‟s Dictionary, kitchen is the part of the house where the food is prepared (1997: 227).
b. Seddity
c. Mannish and womanish
Mannish and womanish could be used to refer to characteristics of a man or characteristics of a woman. However, these words can be used to refer to boys or girls, respectively, who are seen as behaving inappropriately for their young ages. In African American Vernacular English, these words can be describe to the behavior of a baby or young boy who is particularly advanced or independent for his age (Green, 2002: 20).
d. Get over
Get over is one of idioms which the meaning is different to Standard English. In African American Vernacular English, get over is to take advantage of someone or situation. It can be seen in “the students tried to get over on the teacher” it means, “the students tried to take advantage of the teacher” (Green, 2002: 21). However, based on Cambridge Dictionary of American Idioms, get over means to feel better after an illness or bad situation or it can be meant as to accept a fact or situation (2003:146).
e. Come
f. Mash
According to Green, mash in African American Vernacular English used to mean press or apply light pressure to an object to achieve result. The example of using mash is “mash the button again so the elevator will come to this floor” (Green: 2002, 22). Otherwise, in Standard English mash based on The New Webster‟s Dictionary is to cause to become a mash, by grinding, crushing etc (1997: 253).
g. Some
For African American Vernacular English, some used to indicate the extremity of a state of action, it has the meaning of very. It can be seen in “Kareem Abdul
Jabar is some tall” (Green, 2002: 23). According to The New Webster‟s dictionary, some is an indefinite quantity or indefinite number of people or things, or it can be used also to indicate approximately (1997: 419).
c. History of African American Vernacular English
Based on history, English was employed in England, it spread across the world due to the colonialism. They colonized many countries and contacted to the people. It makes them as the most spoken language in the world. That is why English has many dialects such as American English, Singaporean English, Australian English, etc.
Spoken Soul, they said, “when the African slaves arrived on the American mainland they were often put to work on plantations alongside these indentured servants. Since the number of African slaves was relatively small in the beginning, the first slaves would have had little difficulty learning the English that spoken by their employers and fellow laborers” (Rickford, 2000:132).
The development of African American Vernacular English itself is still controversial for some linguists. Thus, there are two theories regarding how African American Vernacular English was developed in America: the dialect hypothesis and the creole hypothesis. The dialect hypothesis conducted by the dialectologist stated that the slaves learned English from people surrounding them. “The African American Vernacular English dialect formed from dialect spoken the lower-class Euro-Americans in the southern US” (Parker, 2005: 148). As immigrants whose their native language was not English, they learned the „wrong‟ English or non-standard English, and they continued to use that language. The second hypothesis is called the creole hypothesis. Based on the glossary in the An Introduction to Language, a Creole is “a language that begins as a pidgin and eventually becomes the first language of a speech community through its being learned by children.” (Fromkin et al, 2003: 579). By the process of decreolization, African American Vernacular English has begun to more like Standard English. However, due to the social and racial segregation made the linguistic differences between African American Vernacular English and SE were visible.
that the men and women from different language group will marry and have children with whom there will be little option but to speak in the pidgin. While the multitude of African languages initially resulted in the slaves developing a pidgin based on English vocabulary, the following generations of slaves grew up speaking only the pidgin, and the original African languages ceased to be passed on at all. When a pidgin language replaces the original vernaculars that caused it to evolve in this waym we say that the pidgin has become a creole. (Crowley, 1992: 267)
Due to the slavery, African slaves at that time could not raise better life or education. “More that half of all slaves in 1860 worked on plantation, and most of those were fieldhands” (Tindall, 1997: 438). The slavery had started since early of the seventeenth century until 1860s, brought up anti-slavery movement to United States. A civil war between the Confederate States of America and the United States that killed billions of white and black people from April 1961 to April 1965 caused Abraham Lincoln to sign the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1863. “Lincoln issued a preliminary Emancipation Proclamation which warned on
January 1, 1863, all slaves in Confederate States or areas still under active rebellion would be „thenceforward and forever free‟ (Tindall, 1997: 512)” However, this emancipation did not satisfy enough for the blacks, it seemed not legal enough. That is why in 1865, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the Thirteenth Amendment on January 1865. The amendment was the sign of the end of war and about the abolishment of slavery in the United States. “thus removing any lingering doubts about the legality of the emancipation” (Tindall, 1997: 514).
Unfortunately, the Thirteenth Amendment could not guarantee the rights of African-American citizens. They still had to face racial segregation, which means
those „Black‟, Americans were separated from the „White‟ American. The
Southerners began passing new laws enforcing racial segregation (separation of black people from whites) known as Jim Crow Laws. Based on Encyclopedia Britannica (2015), Jim Crow Law is any of the laws that enforced racial segregation in the South between the end of the formal Reconstruction period in 1877 and the beginning of a strong civil rights movement in the 1950s.
The segregation was enforcing the „Black‟ Americans to be not equal with
the „White‟ Americans in facilities such as they had to use the different bus, different library, and different bathroom. The segregation is seen in the novel proposed by a white lady, Hilly Holbrook.
“That‟s exactly why I‟ve designed the Home Help Sanitation Initiative,” Miss Hilly say. “As a disease-preventive measure.”
Miss Skeeter look real confused. “The Home… the what?‟
“A bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the colored help. I‟ve been notified the surgeon general of Mississippi to see if he‟ll endorse the idea. I pass.” (Stocket, 2009: 10)
Not only in the term of facility, had the „Black‟ Americans also separated in
opportunity. They lived under poverty, they had to work hard to the „White‟
Americans, and most children had to quit their school. As it seen in Minnie‟s monologue, “I was fourteen years old to the day… I was about to quit school and start my first job” (Stocket, 2009:45).
Therefore, there was a movement proposing the end of racial segregation in the United States, it was known as African- American Civil Rights. This civil rights bring benefits to African- American citizen that they are now equal to any races in the United States. “This was also the time when the word Negro came to
be replaced by the word Black with reference to Afro-Americans. The new
several new concepts and the phrase that denote them: Black power, Black studies, Black history, and last but not least, Black English” (Kovecses,2000: 95 -96)
2.Theory of Standard English
The theory of Standard English is used to find out the definition of Standard English and it is compared to African American Vernacular English. Therefore, the differences between those two variations of English can be understood.
a. Definition of Standard English
The term „Standard English‟ was established from the dialect of English. The dialect was flourished and used by the educated people. “This dialect became the one preferred by the educated, and it was developed and promoted as model, or norm, for wider and wider segments of society.” (Wardaugh, 1992:31)
Until today, the term Standard English is considered as the right form of English. People use Standard English to determine what is right and what is wrong. Before we judge whether one English is standard or not, we better know the definition of Standard English first. Standard itself becomes controversy among linguists.
According to Peter Trudgill, the definitions of Standard English can be divided into some categories; Standard English is not a language, Standard English is not an accent, Standard English is not a style, and Standard English is not register.
processes. However, for Peter Trudgill, he defines Standard English as a variety of English language.
Standard English, whatever it is, is less than a language, since it is only one variety of English, in all sorts of ways: it is the variety associated with education system in all the English speaking countries of the world, and is therefore the variety of spoken by those who are often referred to as „educated people; and it is the variety taught to non-native learners. Standard English is thus not the English language but simply variety of it (Trudgill, 1999: 118). For common people, Standard English also relates to the correct pronunciation. If there is someone speaks in different pronunciation or use regional dialect or accent, they will be considered as the one who cannot speak Standard English.
There is one thing about Standard English on which most linguists, or at least British linguists, do appear to be agreed, and that is that Standard English has nothing to do with pronunciation…It‟s true that in most cases Standard English speakers do not have „broad‟ local accents, i.e. accents with large numbers of regional features which are phonologically and phonetically very distant from RP (Received Pronunciation), but it‟s clear that in principle we can say that, while RP is, in a sense, standardized, it is a standardized accent of English and not Standard English itself (Trudgill, 1999: 118)
Discussing about Standard English, it means we have to relate it with the chosen words or lexical features. People also relate it to the informal and formal style of a language.
We characterize style as varieties of language viewed from the point of view of formality. Styles are varieties which can be arranged on a continuum ranging from very formal to very informal… Speaker are able to influence and change the degree of formality of a social situation by manipulation of stylistic choice (Trudgill, 1999: 119)
Register also relates to the lexical. Due to some opinions, that one lexical item or one register describe the social status of one person. Trudgill gives an example when a person from outside the medical, says „clavicle‟ rather than „collar bone‟,
it would one‟s social status. The lexis can be obtained from any source or any
circumstances.
We use the term register in the sense of variety of language determined by topic, subject matter or activity, such as the register of mathematics, the register of medicine, or the register of pigeon fancying. In English, this is almost exclusively a matter of lexis. (Trudgill, 1999:119)
At the end, Trudgill defines Standard English as one of English dialects. As long as it‟sacceptable in one country, it‟s Standard English “It‟s a sub-variety of English. Sub-varieties of languages are usually refer to as dialects, and languages are often described as consisting of dialects.” (Trudgill, 1999: 123).
3. Theory of Speech Accommodation
