[Ads-l] Antedating of "AAVE"

[Laurence Horn]

I find it hard to believe this acronym/initialism doesn’t go back farther. Here’s one earlier paper, cited from John Rickford’s web site, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t make up the term for the occasion.

1991	“Rappin on the Copula Coffin: Theoretical and Methodological Issues in the Analysis of Copula Variation in African American Vernacular English." <https://johnrickford.com/portals/45/documents/papers/Rickford-1991f-Rappin-on-the-Copula-Coffin.-Theoretical-and-Methodological-issues.pdf> (With A. Ball, R. Blake, R. Jackson and N. Martin.) Language Variation and Change 3.1:103-132.


The first paragraph reads:

In this article, we reopen the analysis of one of the oldest and most frequently
examined variables in the paradigm of quantitative sociolinguistics: variation
between full, contracted, and zero forms of inflected copula and auxiliary
be (henceforth "the copula") in African-American Vernacular English
(AAVE), as in "Sue is the leader," "She's happy," "He 0 talkin.” 

LH


> On May 11, 2024, at 9:43 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> AAVE (OED 1993)
> 
> 1992 _LSA Bulletin_ Oct. 12 (JSTOR)  Negative inversion in African American Vernacular English (AAVE).
> 
> Fred Shapiro
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org