From: dcarroll@niji.or.jp
Subject: AAVE and Discourse
To: linganth@cc.rochester.edu

Dear Linganthers

What seems to be missing from the discussion on AAVE/Ebonics is the discourse dimension. Studies by people like Gumperz, Schiffrin, Tannen and Labov have shown that it is the insidious micro-linguistic discoursal features like pause timings and prosodic patterns which have a disproportionate effect on the attitudes (which is what really counts) created in the hearer. Gumperz's classic study of Indian English speakers in Britain showed how Anglo and Indian participants in conversation turned a casual exchange into a hostile encounter because neither was able to recognized what Gumperz calls the "contextualizations cues" of the other. Statements meant as neutral by the Indian speaker were heard as aggressive and hostile by the Anglo-English speaker, for example. This was NOT a case of an Indian who didn't speak English well but rather TWO highly proficient English speakers from different speech communities. Labov in particular has written on the discoursal features of Black inner-city talk.

As long as we continue to think of "Black English" as a bunch of "jive" idioms, slang terms and "odd" pronunciations with a few grammatical points thrown in (BE is the only one ever mentioned in the discussions) we will continue to trivialize the huge communication gaps that can result from differing discourse systems.

Even speakers of other languages who have become highly "fluent" in English often continue to use the discourse patterns from their L1 and therefore continue to encounter communication difficulties. Japanese speakers of English, for example, prefer longer pauses between turns in conversations than American English speakers (who prefer shorter pauses of about .2 of a second). The resulting out-of-step turntaking often results in the American dominating the conversation and creating the impression that Japanese are passive and unwilling to talk. Speakers of Asian languages in general prefer to introduce the reasons or cause for an action before the action itself (compare "I went to the hospital because I was sick" which is the unmarked style in English vs "BYOOKI DATTA KARA byooin e itta" [SICK WAS BECAUSE hospital to went] which is the unmarked form in Japanese, as well as Chinese discourse). This often causes SAE speakers to think of Japanese or Chinese in negative terms such as "devious", "indirect", and "non-commital". SAE speakers on the other hand would be seen as "foolish", "imprudent" an so on.

How does Black English differ from SAE on such points? I don't know and I doubt that the people planning to organize the Oakland Ebonics program do either. Teachers do NOT need to be taught what "We be hangin" means -- any teacher teaching in such a school district who has NOT picked up such talk is seriously out-of-touch with his students. Instead the TEACHERS and PERHAPS the students need to be instructed in the subtle discourse differences such as quantity and types of backchanneling, speaker overlap conventions, system of functional prosodics (for example, what does rising intonation at the end of a statement "mean"?) and inter-turn pause lengths. These are the features which have been shown to disrupt communication and cause serious attitudinal problems far more than simple lexical or phonetic differences.

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Donald Carroll, English Department
International Communications Program
Shikoku Gakuin University
Bunkyo-cho 3-2-16, Zentsuji-shi, Kagawa 765 JAPAN
Fax: +81 (877) 63 4329 Email: dcarroll@niji.or.jp
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"Grammar, of course, is the model of closely ordered, routinely observable
social activities."

Harvey Sacks
Lectures on Conversation Vol. I



<---- End Forwarded Message ---->

*******************************************************
Donald Carroll, English Department
International Communications Program
Shikoku Gakuin University
Bunkyo-cho 3-2-16, Zentsuji-shi, Kagawa 765 JAPAN
Fax: +81 (877) 63 4329 Email: dcarroll@niji.or.jp
*******************************************************

"Grammar, of course, is the model of closely ordered, routinely observable
social activities."

Harvey Sacks
Lectures on Conversation Vol. I