Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 13:48:44 -0600

From: "Salikoko S. Mufwene" s-mufwene[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UCHICAGO.EDU

Subject: Re: Use of Ain't



In message Sat, 10 Feb 1996 14:45:27 -0330,

Trevor Porter tporter[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CS.MUN.CA writes:



Is anyone aware of a study, completed or otherwise, on the use of

"ain't" and its variants in English?



In DIALECTS OF ENGLISH, edited by P. Trudgill & J.K. Chambers, there is an

interesting study by Jenny Cheshire on AIN'T in urban British English

dialects (1991, Longman). In FOCUS AND GRAMMATICAL RELATIONS IN CREOLES, ed.

by Francis Byrne and Donald Winford (1993, John Benjamins), there is a paper

by myself on negation and focus in Gullah. (I consider it a dialect of

English, assuming that creoles are not separate languages to their native

speakers.) AIN'T seems to be the functionally unmarked sentence- and

VP-scope negator in Gullah. At least the facts might inform your comparison.



Sali.

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Salikoko S. Mufwene s-mufwene[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uchicago.edu

University of Chicago 312-702-8531; FAX: 312-702-9861

Department of Linguistics

1010 East 59th Street

Chicago, IL 60637

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