Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1994 12:51:28 -0600

From: Natalie Maynor maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RA.MSSTATE.EDU

Subject: Re: Recent Black English



I usually explain Habitual to students as involving two

things: 1) repeated action (as in Sali's interpretation of the BE

construction, which I gather he doesn't think IS habitual), and 2)

lack of specificity. IE the speaker must be referring to something

that happens more than once, and not referring to any particular case

of it, if she is using a Habitual. Is that what others think it means?



That's what it means to me.



I just looked for the article with examples of a rural/urban split on

invariant "be" (in Texas) and found the reference: Bailey & Maynor.

1989. "The Divergence Controversy." American Speech 64.1: 12-39.

--Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)