syntax of english dialects

Kaden Holladay Ling 101 11/02

Negative concord, null copula, midterms

1. (Midterms to be passed back at the end of class)

2. Negative concord

Negative concord is a syntactic phenomenon found in many of the words dialects/languages

A negative concord language/dialect is one in which more than one negative element occurs in a sentence, but the sentence is interpreted as only being negated once.

In the US: African American English, Appalachian English, …

Elsewhere: Spanish, Portuguese, Persian, Russian, Neapolitan, Italian, Japanese, Bulgarian, Czech, Polish, Afrikaans, Hebrew, …

(By contrast, “Standard” American English lacks negative concord.)

(1) I ain’t never been drunk. (SAE meaning: I’ve never been drunk) (2) Nobody couldn’t handle him. (SAE meaning: Nobody could handle him)

3. Null copula

Copula refers to a form of the verb “be”. For example: They are happy. She is smart. I am tall.

Some varieties of English omit the copula in certain contexts. Since it’s not pronounced, we call it a null copula. For example: He __ fast. (AAE)

What are the restrictions on the use of the null copula?

Restriction 1: only is and are can be omitted (not was, were, am): She __ fast. (AAE) Can only mean “She is fast” — not “She was fast” They __ tall. (AAE) Can only mean “They are tall” — not “They were tall” I’m happy. (AAE) “I happy” is completely ungrammatical!

Restriction 2: null copula can only occur in places where contraction can occur in Standard American English (“*” means “ungrammatical”):

* I know who you’re. (SAE) * I know who you __. (AAE)

He’s happy. (SAE) He __ happy. (AAE)

This dialect difference is systematic!