Use of "You's" in AAVE

[Damien Hall]

A cross-post from the Linguist List.  Apologies to anyone who's already seen it
there.  As usual, please reply directly to Jim (who asked the question) as well
as to this list!

Damien Hall
University of Pennsylvania

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Message 1: Use of 'You's' in AAVE

Date: 01-Feb-2006
From: Jim Fitzpatrick <jfitz at alumni.duke.edu>
Subject: Use of 'You's' in AAVE


Hello all,

I would like to know if anyone knows of any scholarly resources done on the
use of 'you's' in African American Vernacular English. I am specifically
interested in its use where a deleted copula might otherwise normally
occur, as in the following examples:

(1a) You a X.
(1b) You's a X.

I am specifically interested in any sociolinguistic work done on
distribution patterns or social significance of this variant. Thanks in
advance for any help anyone can provide.

Best,

Jim Fitzpatrick
Ph.D Program in Linguistics
University of California-Santa Barbara

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics

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