Date: Sun, 20 Nov 1994 12:41:18 CST

From: salikoko mufwene mufw[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU

Subject: Re: Recent Black English



In Message Fri, 18 Nov 1994 18:05:23 -0600,

"Timothy C. Frazer" mftcf[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uxa.ecn.bgu.edu writes:



For example, one young African-American told me that when

she used uninflected BE it did NOT refer to a habitual action. Anyone

else have this happen?

Your student is partly right. In AAVE, HE DON' TELL LIES and HE DON' BE

TELLIN LIES do not mean the same thing. The first is the basic habitual;

the second denotes repeated processes. Note also the absence of

contradiction in the following statement: I STAY WITH MY SISTER BUT I BE

WITH MY MOM MOST OF THE TIME. In the second part, the speaker refers to

repeated states. The following is also informative: NATE BE BABBLIN EVERY

TIME I VISIT, EXCEPT FOR THAT PARTICULAR AFTERNOON, HE WAS SO SILENT... I

have come to the conclusion that habituative BE constructions denote

something like REPEATED STATE OR PROCESS, rather than a simple habit. There

might be more to it; hopefully those who have more experience with AAVE and

can articulate the meaning well for linguists will do it for the rest of us.

Sali.

Salikoko S. Mufwene

University of Chicago

Dept. of Linguistics

1010 East 59th Street

Chicago, IL 60637

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

312-702-8531; fax: 312-702-9861