Tempus och Tid i ‘Nonstandard’ Engelska Joe Trotta Språk och Literaturer/Engelska SPRÅKWORKSHOP II, 5 november 2010 ‘Hur skapas betydelser för tid och tidsförhållanden i olika språk?’

Dagens presentation Tempus vs. Aspekt Tempus, tid, tidsformer och tidsrelationer Standard vs. nonstandard engelska Exempel på tempus i nonstandard engelska En närmare titt på AAVE Sammanfattning/slutkommentarer

Tempus, tid, tidsformer & tidsrelationer A grammatical category vs ’real’ time referred to example: The train leaves at midnight. Verb inflection or whole vp ? example: He walks to work. He walked to work. He will walk to work. Whole utterance example: I want to go when he comes back. I can do that for you tomorrow. In 49 BC, Ceasar crosses the Rubicon. Tense? Tense?

Standard English (from ‘above’) vs. Non-standard English (from ‘below’) Yo, wassup, yo, yo, yo! What's poppin’, dawg? I'm-a give it to ya straight up like ya don't know what hit ya. You're work is THE shit! I can't live without it, yo. Damn, niggah. Ya got it goin’ for y’all! "How do you do, Madame. I am extremely delighted to make your acquaintance. It would give me great pleasure if you would accept my invitation for a cup of tea, let's say, around five-ish?" 5

Standard vs. nonstandard engelska A B C D E Standard ----|-----------|-----|---------|----------|--- Nonstandard A continuum of standardness (from Wolfram & Schilling-Estes, 2006)

Exempel på tempus & tidsformer i nonstandard engelska A wider range of uses of the Progressive: I’m lovin’ it. So what are you wanting from me? A much more important role of habitual marking: He be sick. (AAVE) He be’s at home. (IrE) He does catch fish pretty. (Creole) A weakening of the strict division between the Present Perfect and the Simple Past: Did you eat yet? / Were you ever in London? (AmE) I know him since my school days (IrE). Some of us have been to New York years ago. Syntax as a science? More questions than answers. When we speak of physics as a science we mean we are looking for the universal laws that govern physical events. But what does it mean to do syntax as a science? The”laws”of Spanish are different from the “laws” of English. There AREN’T any universal laws. Each language has its own arbitrary set. To say some thing is a science we need to have some idea of what we are trying to explain. So the perspective we take is to say that scientific syntax is a branch of psychology: We study (seek to explain) the organization of sentence structure in the mind.

Exempel på tempus & tidsformer i nonstandard engelska A weakening of the division between the Past Tense forms and Past Participle forms: He shoulda did that yesterday. You coulda took more time. We seen him do that. Be as a perfect auxiliary: They’re not left school yet. (IrE) Do as a tense and aspect marker: This man what do own this. (English Southwest) Wen ai did smaal tin woz chiyp. (Panamanian Creole) Reduction of have after auxiliaries: We shoulda left sooner. They coulda done better. Syntax as a science? More questions than answers. When we speak of physics as a science we mean we are looking for the universal laws that govern physical events. But what does it mean to do syntax as a science? The”laws”of Spanish are different from the “laws” of English. There AREN’T any universal laws. Each language has its own arbitrary set. To say some thing is a science we need to have some idea of what we are trying to explain. So the perspective we take is to say that scientific syntax is a branch of psychology: We study (seek to explain) the organization of sentence structure in the mind.

Exempel på tempus & tidsformer i nonstandard engelska Completive/perfective done: You don ate what I has sent you? Past tense marker been: I been cut the bread. (AAVE) Was sit/stood with progressive meaning: When you are stood there, you can see the flames. (BrE) The general use of gonna as a future marker: I’m gonna do that later. It’s gonna rain soon. He gonna do it. (AAVE) Syntax as a science? More questions than answers. When we speak of physics as a science we mean we are looking for the universal laws that govern physical events. But what does it mean to do syntax as a science? The”laws”of Spanish are different from the “laws” of English. There AREN’T any universal laws. Each language has its own arbitrary set. To say some thing is a science we need to have some idea of what we are trying to explain. So the perspective we take is to say that scientific syntax is a branch of psychology: We study (seek to explain) the organization of sentence structure in the mind.

Tempus/Aspekt i AAVE & SE: likheter SE AAVE present He walks He walk past He walked He walk(ed) pres. prog. He is walking He (is) walking past prog. He was walking He was walking perfect He has walked He done walked past perf. He had walked He had done walked AAVE makes the same general distinctions of tense and aspect as does SE in addition to a few that are pretty much unique to AAVE. The following table compares the verb paradigms for progressive and perfect in AAVE and SE Notice that SE and AAVE make the same distinctions here but they have different means for doing so. AAVE uses done to express prefect and had done to express past perfect.

Tempus/Aspekt i AAVE & SE: skillnader Phases/Tenses of AAVE Phase Example Past Pre-recent I been seen him Recent She done work Pre-present We did sing Past Inceptive I do sing Present We singing Future Immediate I'm a-sing Post-immediate I'm a-gonna do it Indefinite future He gonna sing

Några exempel på ‘aspekt’ på AAVE Aspect Example SE Meaning Habitual/ continuative aspect He be workin' Tuesdays. He works frequently or habitually. Intensified continuative (habitual) He stay workin'. He is always working. Intensified continuative (not habitual) He steady workin'. He keeps on working. Perfect progressive He been workin'. He has been working. Irrealis (future intention) He finna go to work. He is about to go to work. Syntax as a science? More questions than answers. When we speak of physics as a science we mean we are looking for the universal laws that govern physical events. But what does it mean to do syntax as a science? The”laws”of Spanish are different from the “laws” of English. There AREN’T any universal laws. Each language has its own arbitrary set. To say some thing is a science we need to have some idea of what we are trying to explain. So the perspective we take is to say that scientific syntax is a branch of psychology: We study (seek to explain) the organization of sentence structure in the mind.

Några intressanta hjälpverb i AAVE Stressed been (BIN) (Remote BIN) She BIN tell me that. She BIN eating. I BIN know him. He BIN a preacher. Completive done I done pushed it. You done changed. Invariant BE (Habitual BE) I be looking for somewhere to go. Your phone bill be high, don’t it? It be knives in here. I be in my office by 7:30. Syntax as a science? More questions than answers. When we speak of physics as a science we mean we are looking for the universal laws that govern physical events. But what does it mean to do syntax as a science? The”laws”of Spanish are different from the “laws” of English. There AREN’T any universal laws. Each language has its own arbitrary set. To say some thing is a science we need to have some idea of what we are trying to explain. So the perspective we take is to say that scientific syntax is a branch of psychology: We study (seek to explain) the organization of sentence structure in the mind.

Sammanfattning & slutkommentarer Förhållanden mellan tempus, tid, tidsformer och tidsrelationer är komplicerade Nonstandard engelska kan uttrycka tidsrelationer på många sätt Nonstandard engelska är inte mindre logisk, systematisk eller nyanserad än standard engelska Tidsformerna på nonstandard engelska kan ge en insikt om eventuella språkförändringar Fråga: Kan skillnader i SEs och NSEs tidsformer spegla olika tidsuppfattningar? In many cases the AAVE stressed BIN is misinterpreted by non-AAVE speakers. This happens it seems because AAVE sentences with BIN superficially resemble rather different SE sentences. This is most clearly the case for sentences such as the following: m. He BIN a preacher n. That house BIN white. o. He BIN here. p. He BIN married. For non-AAVE speakers, such sentences may appear to be derived from, m’. He has been a preacher (but now he is not). n’. That house has been white (now it’s red). o’. He has been here before (but not continuously) p’. He has been married (and now he is getting married again).

TACK!