copula deletion and BEV

[Amy West]

Thanks for educating me. It's something that I've never noticed before.
Does Labov's claim hold up under scrutiny?

---Amy West

>Date:    Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:23:09 -0500
>From:    Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>Subject: Re: a dialect using just participle?
>
>It looks like copula deletion.  Labov claimed this feature was an important
>community marker of Black English Vernacular.
>
>Quoting Amy West <medievalist at W-STS.COM>:
>  > Now, finally, I'm reading the handbook (Longman Writer's Companion)
>>  and in their discussion of the progressive & perfect tenses they
>  > identify as a dialect example this:
>>
>>  The interview starting five minutes late.
>>  (They analyze it as omitting _is_ in _is starting_.)
>>
>>  I've never run across this dialectical variant. Now I feel really
>  > stupid for thinking that my student was stupid.

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