An Analysis Of The Inequality Of African American Vernacular English From The Perspective Of Sociolinguistics

African American Vernacular English(AAVE), also known as Black English, is a variety of English as well as an ethnic dialect. It is mainly spoken by Americans of African lineage, an important minority group in the United States. Since the 1960 s, lots of western linguists have dedicated themselves to the study of AAVE, such as William Labov, J.L.Dillard, J.R.Rickford and Geneva Smitherman, all of whom are leading experts in this field. By contrast, research on English varieties by linguists of China primarily focuses on British English and American English, while research on AAVE has a later start and gains less attention.For a multiplicity of reasons, there exist vast differences between AAVE and standard English in pronunciation, lexicon and grammar. These differences cause frequent misunderstandings in black-white communication. In spite of the repeated assertions of modern linguists that all languages and dialects are equal and that AAVE, like other English varieties, is also rule-governed, systematic and logical and can be used to fulfill various communicative needs, non-AAVE speakers, especially standard English speakers,often hold negative and discriminatory attitudes towards this dialect. This is one of the reflections of linguistic inequality. The issue of linguistic inequality is theorized and classified by British sociolinguist R.A.Hudson. This thesis, based on Hudson’s theory of linguistic inequality, tries to analyze the inequality of AAVE from the perspective of sociolinguistics and to probe into the social roots giving rise to inequalities.The whole thesis consists of three parts: introduction, main body, and conclusion. Below are the main contents of each part:The first part is introduction. This part first gives a brief survey about the research background and the general research situations of AAVE both at home and abroad. Then, it introduces the structure and the research significance of the paper, aiming to inform the readers of the general content of the thesis.The second part is the main body, which is made up of three chapters:Chapter One first introduces the theory of linguistic inequality, including its definition and its classification made by Hudson, namely subjective inequality, strictly linguistic inequality and communicative inequality. The definition of each type and their connection with social inequality are also described. The remaining part deals with the basic facts of AAVE, including its related terminology, speakers and origin.Chapter Two, containing three sections, elaborates on the reflections of the inequality of AAVE. The first section is about the reflection of subjective inequality, which can be seen in people’s negative attitude towards and misconceptions about Black English. Most of the whites consider black vernacular as a kind of street slang and “lazy English”or “broken English”. Language purist John Simon even goes so far as to identify the use of Black English with an abuse of standard English and to classify AAVE speakers as pathological. The huge differences between black and white vernaculars have led some educators to conclude that black children have verbal and cognitive deficiencies. The Ann Arbor Black English Case and the controversy surrounding the Oakland Resolution stand as the best testament to such a negative view. As to the Afro-Americans themselves, they tend to hold an ambivalent opinion on their own dialect. On the one hand, they cherish the vernacular passed down by their forefathers and see it as a symbol of black identity. On the other hand, they reject it because they think it is a synonym for low social status. The second section analyzes the reflection of strictly linguistic inequality. By expounding on the phonological, morpho-syntactic and lexico-semantic features of AAVE, this part shows that there are enormous differences between AAVE and SE and that AAVE speakers are unequal from a strictly linguistic point of view. This is particularly noticeable for the underclass black children and it influences to a great extent their performance in school, where lessons are given in standard English. White teachers, however, rarely take black students’ special linguistic and cultural background into consideration. The third section discusses the reflection of communicative inequality. Black English speakers are often misunderstood by white English speakers in cross-cultural communication owing to the fact that black Americans’ cultural conventions are heavily Africanized and that white Americans tend to judge black language and black culture just according to their own standards. A few typical communicative cases are selected to illustrate this point, for example, argument and fighting, boasting and bragging, accusation and defence.Chapter Three analyzes the social factors leading to the inequality of AAVE. There are historical, economic, political and cultural causes underlying these inequalities. For example, in colonial age, slaves had to toil on plantations and could not receive schooling. Although slavery was eventually abolished, blacks seldom have the opportunity to receive the same education as that of the whites due to their low economic status. This is a crucial factor leading to the great differences between Black English and white English. In addition, the lower-class blacks, having undergone inhumane persecution and prejudice from the whites, choose to preserve their own dialect with firm determination instead of learning and using standard English. Besides, American language policy aims at upholding the authority of standard English by suppressing minority languages; it is difficult for Black English to secure an equal status and full development. Also, white supremacy and racial discrimination are still the order of the day. In western culture, “white” is connected with “angel”, representing the quality of being pure and beautiful, whereas “black” is associated with “demon”, representing the quality of being wicked and ugly.The last part is conclusion, which makes a summary of the preceding chapters. As a minority language, AAVE faces severe challenges in the context of the globalization of the English language and it risks being assimilated by mainstream English. The same holds true for black culture. Linguistic and cultural diversity is thus undermined. This part attempts to offer some suggestions on how to preserve black vernacular and black culture, for example, promoting bidialectal/bicultural instruction, and finally, it points out the practical significance and limitations of the thesis and gives some advice for further research.