copula deletion and BEV

[Charles Doyle]

Which, of course, mirrors the old debate about whether certain features of BEV should be explained phonologically or morphologically and syntactically . . . .

--Charlie
__________________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 25 Jan 2007 09:16:45 -0500
>From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>Subject: Re: copula deletion and BEV
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>
>
>Well, when do we delete copulas, and when do we simply employ ordinary phonological (reduction) processes? (And can we say for sure when were doing one or the other?)
>
>Seem like to me that "You takin' Delta" could have lots of sources:
>
>Non-interrogative (all falling intonation):

>1) Copula deletion

>2) /r/ deletion (You're taking....") in which the copula is not deleted, just the only phonetic clue that it is there. That there could be a historical relationship between these facts goes without saying. Look at all them "They goin' to school" speakers who are NOT r-deleters.
>
>Interrogative:

>1) Copula deletion

>        a. From a non-interrogative structure ("You are taking Delta) made interrogative by rising final intonation only

>        b. From an interrogative structure ("Are you taking Delta")

>2) Weak syllable reduction /ar/ -> /r/ and loss (since the resulting onset cluster /ry/ is not allowed, although Japanese speakers can handle it.) Note /may/ and /zi/ in "Am I..." and "Is he..." construction where the onset is permissible.

>3) /r/ deletion from the non-interrogative as in 1) a) after contraction.
>
>I would not regard anything other than the 1)s above as "Copula deletion."
>
>dInIs (who woulda said the same thing under the rules for Interrogative 2 above)
>
>


>>
>>Early this morning I drove my wife to the Atlanta airport; approaching the terminal, I distinctly heard myself inquire (in WEV), "You taking Delta or AirTran?" Of course, in writing I wouldn't delete the copula in such a sentence, and the copula seems easier to delete in questions, and possibly in second-person constructions ("You gonna eat that?"). Still, I definitely deleted it!
>>
>>--Charlie
>>____________________________________________
>>
>>>
>>>>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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