Negation in African American Vernacular English*

Darin Howe University of Calgary

It’s like can’t nobody never get confused and think I’m like a Mike Tyson ... (Tupac Shakur, transcribed interview accessed July 27, 2004 at

<http://www.2pac2k.de/bigob.html>) It ain’t never been another fighter like me. Ain’t never been no nothing like me.

(Muhammad Ali, Playboy 9/64) You don’t know nobody what don’t want to hire nobody to do nothin’ does you?

(Henry Garry, ex-slave, b. 1863, Sumter Co., AL)

1. Introduction This chapter examines negation in African American Vernacular English. Following a short introduction to this speech variety, I focus on two conspicuous structures in its negation system: ain’t and negative concord. Negative postposing and negative inversion are discussed briefly as well. I also consider the diachronic status of each structure by including corpora representing earlier African American English. 2. AAVE African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a variety of speech adopted by working-class descendants of US slaves in colloquial contexts. This variety * I am grateful to Yoko Iyeiri for inviting me to write this chapter, and to Jeff Long for his

assistance in collecting examples of negation from rap music. For their help with my previous work on earlier African American English, I am thankful especially to Shana Poplack, and to Sali Tagliamonte, James Walker, Tracey Weldon, Don Winford, John McWhorter, and John Rickford.

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is of special interest to linguists because it diverges not only in degree but also often in kind from standard American English as well as (more revealingly) from other nonstandard and regional varieties (Mufwene et al. 1998, Green 2002).

The distinctiveness of AAVE has invited much speculation about its origins. The central question has been whether AAVE evolved from a prior creole (e.g., Winford 1992), or whether its roots are to be found only in English (e.g., Poplack 2000). In trying to resolve this question, researchers have sought information on the diachronic status of AAVE from two kinds of sources: historical attestations, and synchronic transplanted varieties. The most important diachronic attestations are recordings made with former slaves (Bailey et al. 1991) and transcripts of interviews with former slaves from Virginia (Kautzsch 2000) and from across the American South more generally (Schneider 1989). Speakers in these corpora relay African American English as they learned it in the middle of the nineteenth century.

The second source of information is the African American diaspora. Between the mid 1700s and early 1800s, thousands of African Americans emigrated to diverse locations, including Nova Scotia in Canada, Samaná in the Dominican Republic, and Liberia in West Africa (Poplack & Tagliamonte 2001, Singler 1998). Crucially, the social isolation and geographic remoteness of these transplanted communities make them linguistic enclaves —environments where language typically resists (socially motivated) change. This has led most researchers to consider the varieties spoken in these communities to be representative of “old-line” early nineteenth century African American English. Some isolated communities within the US have also been argued to constitute enclaves, and as such, to represent earlier African American English (e.g., Davis & Huang 1995, Wolfram 2003).

These various sources of information suggest (with remarkable uniformity) that early African Americans spoke a variety of English that was rather similar to contemporary nonstandard Southern European American English (e.g., Feagin 1979). A few unique aspects of African American English, such as substantive consonant cluster reduction, point to persistent substrate influence from an earlier contact situation, perhaps with an English-based creole like Gullah, but as Wolfram (2003:311) remarks, this influence does not necessarily imply that Earlier African American English was ever a creole itself.

AAVE is divergent today because African Americans have not only faithfully preserved and proliferated their ancestors’ linguistic structures, but also avoided participation in many ongoing linguistic changes in their surrounding communities. Indeed, interest in AAVE was first spiked in the late

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1960s as field work in various inner cities revealed “a remarkably consistent Black English grammar throughout the country” (Labov 1982:488). As Rickford (1992:262) states, “no major grammatical differences have emerged from the study of Vernacular Black English in Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Atlanta, Wilmington, Berkeley, and Los Angeles.” Similarly, Wolfram and Schilling-Estes (1999:174–175) remark:

[O]ne of the most noteworthy aspects of AAVE is the common core of features shared across different regions. ... [W]e recognize regional variation in AAVE while concluding, at the same time, that the regional differences do not come close to the magnitude of regional differences that exist across Anglo varieties.

Labov (2001) reaches an analogous conclusion in his large-scale study of

sound changes across the US, and he offers the following explanation (pp. 507–508):

[T]he regional dialects used in the white community are developing in the pattern described in these volumes, and ... blacks do not participate in this process in any large city. [This] is a major factor in the steady and growing separation of black and white speech patterns. ... [T]he nonparticipation of African Americans in the sound changes ... [are] the result of ... the perception that their own use of local dialect forms will not lead to full membership in local society. It can also be accounted for as the result of decreasing frequency of face-to-face interaction with speakers of the mainstream local dialect during their formative years.

The increasing social segregation of African Americans in US cities is the

essential theme of rap, a form of music that emerged in New York City ghettos 25 years ago to become the most popular musical genre in America today. A prototypical rap song involves a spoken narration by an inner-city African American adolescent, accompanied by an electronic rhythm. In general, the rapper is considered authentic, hence acceptable, only to the extent that he/she is able to narrate personal (often harrowing) experiences of ghetto life in fluent AAVE. As such, rap music is the most widely accessible and reliable source of information on modern AAVE, and indeed it supplied most examples of negation to be presented below. (Of course the performative nature of rap makes it problematic as a basis for a quantitative study of AAVE.)

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3. ain’t This section focuses on ain’t. I consider the use of this negative form in the environment of have + not, be + not, and do + not, in both present and past temporal contexts. 3.1 Have + not: present tense The following examples of modern AAVE illustrate the use of ain’t corresponding to the negative form of present tense auxiliary have:

(1) I’m real sorry we ain’t had a chance to chill lately. (Phonte, Away From Me, 2:09)

Def Jam ain’t heard nuttin’ yet. (Method Man, Tear It off, 3:10)

I ain’t met the muthafucka that could do that yet. (Phonte, So Fabulous, 1:33)

I ain’t never been to jail, ... I ain’t never ran, never will, I ain’t never been smacked, ... I ain’t never played myself.

(Jay Z, Justify My Thug, 0:31)

While the alternation between ain’t and have + not is robust in all nonstandard dialects of English, AAVE appears to be the only American variety in which ain’t is the sharply preferred variant. Table 1 displays the frequencies for ain’t vs. have + not in modern AAVE (Columbus, OH), in four corpora representative of Earlier African American English (African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English, the Ex-slave Recordings, and the Virginian narratives), and in a prototypical nonstandard variety of European American English (Alabama vernacular).1 As shown, ain’t is favored over have + not in all varieties of African American English, early and modern, but not in Southern European American English vernacular. This preference for ain’t appears to be more categorical in Earlier AAE than in modern AAVE. Schneider (1989:200) also found 144 instances (from 65 speakers) of ain’t used for have + not in ex-

1 All figures in Table 1 exclude the context of ___ got, which never shows variation between

ain’t and have + not in African American English: use of ain’t is categorical in this context (see §3.5 below).

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slave narratives, and concluded that this was the most common function of ain’t in Earlier AAE: “Most frequently, [ain’t] replaces a negative form of have”.

Table 1. Distribution of ain’t in have+not contexts in AAVE (Weldon 1994:379), African

Nova Scotian English (Howe 1995), Samaná English (ib.), the ex-slave recordings (ib.), the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000:42), and in Southern European American vernacular (Feagin 1979:226)

AAVE ANSE SE ESR VN SEAV N 41 4 15 10 43 127

ain’t 71% 100% 80% 90% 98% 31% 3.2 Have + not: past tense

In his study of ex-slave narratives Schneider (1989:201) additionally reports as many as 24 tokens (16 speakers) in which ain’t functions as past tense hadn’t. Assuming Schneider is correct about this (he offers no examples), it is perhaps significant that Feagin (1979) reports a productive alternation between all contracted forms of negativized have in Southern European American English: “The neutralization of haven’t, hadn’t, and hasn’t extends to all classes in informal style. ... There is no way to distinguish hasn’t and hadn’t aside from adverb cooccurrence and general context... they are never distinguished phonetically” (p. 213), for example:

It hadn’t helped to keep ‘em in jail except to keep ‘em off of somebody else’s neck. (Fred O., U70:48.II.033)

You hadn’t got that turned on, have you? (Eunice T., R 85:39.I.013)

Since earlier African Americans were exposed to earlier Southern European American English, it is possible that some speakers initiated the use of ain’t for hadn’t by generalizing over the variation in hasn’t~haven’t~hadn’t on the one hand, and the regular alternation between ain’t and hasn’t/haven’t on the other (§3.1).

Be that as it may, ain’t is never used for past tense have+not in the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000:42), nor in other corpora representing earlier African American English such as Samaná English, African Nova Scotian English, and the Ex-slave Recordings (Howe 1995) and, therefore unsurprisingly, this usage is also absent from modern AAVE.

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3.3 Be + not: present tense Following are some examples of ain’t corresponding to present tense be+not, both as auxiliary (2a) and as copula (2b), in modern AAVE.

(2) Ain’t as be + not (present)

a. this treadmill lifestyle ain’t workin’ for me. (Phonte, Speed, 0:47)

you ain’t damagin’ this. (Madlib, Discipline 99 Pt. 0, 0:37)

well fuck it, I ain’t budgin’. (Jay Z, Encore, 3:06)

Jesus, I ain’t tryin’ to be facetious. (Jay Z, Lucifer, 0:35)

b. ‘Yo, ain’t you J-Live?’ (J-Live, Car Trouble, 0:25)

this ain’t the life for me. (2Pac, So Many tears, 2:48)

you ain’t nicer than the lunatic shyster. (MF Doom, Raedawn, 2:00)

it really ain’t no time for discussion. (MF Doom, Lactose & Lecithin, 1:10)

Use of ain’t in the negative be environment is also very frequent in European American English vernacular varieties —Table 2 shows that ain’t occurs half the time in working class Alabama Vernacular. But as also shown in Table 2, ain’t is still more frequent in African American English; that is, ain’t has been, and continues to be, the strongly preferred variant for negative be contexts in African American English. Once again, Earlier AAE shows the highest rates, with African Nova Scotian English and the Virginian narratives displaying near-categorical use of ain’t in this environment. Schneider (1989) found that the high-frequency use of ain’t for be + not (119 instances, 47 speakers) closely follows its usage for have + not in the ex-slave narratives. Table 2. Distribution of ain’t in be + not contexts in AAVE (Weldon 1994:371), African

Nova Scotian English (Howe 1995), Samaná English (ib.), the ex-slave recordings (ib.), the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000:42), and in Southern European American vernacular (Feagin 1979:214)

AAVE ANSE SE ESR VN SEAV N 246 144 159 26 35 276 ain’t 63% 92% 72% 85% 94% 51%

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3.4 Be + not: past tense In the corpora representing Earlier AAE, ain’t may also correspond to past tense be+not, though this usage is very rare. As shown in the following table, eleven tokens were found in both African Nova Scotian English (Howe 1995) and in the ex-slave narratives (Schneider 1989). This alternation otherwise occurred only once in Samaná English and in the Ex-Slave Recordings, while “in the Virginian narratives, with past reference, ain’t does not occur as a variant of was/were + NEG” (Kautzsch 2000:43). Table 3. Distribution of ain’t in past tense be+not contexts in African Nova Scotian

English (Howe 1995), Samaná English (ib.), the ex-slave recordings (ib.), the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000:42), the ex-slave narratives (Schneider 1989:200) and AAVE (Weldon 1994:371)

ANSE SE ESR VN ESN AAVE N 188 56 56 18 ? 36

ain’t 6% (N=11) 2% (N=1) 2% (N=1) 0% N=11 0%

The eleven tokens reported by Schneider (1989:200) originated from seven speakers. Beyond this, little is known about these tokens. The single example he provides is presented in (3a). The lone attestations from the Ex-slave Recordings and Samaná English are given in (3b,c). In my view none of these sentences are particularly compelling, since in each case ain’t can be given a non-past interpretation without resulting in temporal anomaly.

(3) Ain’t as past tense be + not

a. I tell you it ain’t right, Miss, what I seen. It ain’t right at all. (Miss 11: 95)

b. Ain’t but one man who ever tried to objec’ church and that was Mr. M. (ESR/013/489)

c. She ain’t born in Washington. (SE/011/225, speaking of his daughter who now lives in DC)

By contrast, the eleven tokens from African Nova Scotian English are striking. They all follow the pattern illustrated in (4), where ain’t clearly functions as past tense be + not, and this function is restricted to a single environment: the contrastive construction “... ain’t ... like ... VERB (present tense) ... now.”

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(4) They ain’t like they is now. (ANSE/030/76)

But the boys ain’t like the boys is now. (ANSE/016/74)

ain`t one of them as strong as they is now. (ANSE/009/581)

cf. ‘Cause it wasn’t no church like it is now. (ANSE/009/712)

This pattern is also used by other informants whose interviews were not included in Howe’s (1995) study:

(5) It was good days. Ain’t nothing like it u-- it is now (ANSE/Elaine Gibson/215)

Ain’t like it is now. (ANSE/Tony Gibson/232)

It ain’t like today. (ANSE/Chris Gilbert/2156)

Revealingly, Feagin (1979) also reports one isolated sentence in which “ain’t is clearly used for weren’t” (p. 215), given in (6). This sentence is from Melvin H. from the Southern European American community of Anniston, Alabama. Although this use is restricted to a single token, the fact that it should take place in the same linguistic environment as the examples from African Nova Scotian English reminds us of the historical relationship between Southern European American speech and earlier African American speech. In fact, the very same sentence is found in (4).

(6) They ain’t like they is now. (Melvin H. 72W:32.I.357)

Table 3 above indicates that ain’t is never used for past tense be+not in contemporary AAVE (Weldon 1994). As Labov et al. (1968:246) report, “was(n’t) is the normal form of the past tense copula in both affirmative and negative constructions.” In this statement Labov et al. are making the additional point that weren’t is rare in AAVE. Weldon (1994), too, reports that “wasn’t is the near-categorical negative auxiliary in past tense copular constructions” (p. 361). According to Tagliamonte & Smith (2000), was levelling (you was, they was) was also significantly favored by negation in Earlier African American English: “the distinction between negative as opposed to affirmative contexts ... exerted a strong effect on the realization of was” (p. 157); they give the following examples from African Nova Scotian English:

(7) You wasn’t allowed to use their toilets. (NPR:p:367.51)

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They wasn’t in no comas. (NPR:t:1118.49)

Interestingly, leveling to was in negative contexts has been initiated by African Americans even in communities where the opposite tendency is observed: leveling to weren’t. Consider Table 4, which describes two be leveling patterns among African Americans and European Americans in Hyde County, an isolated community of coastal North Carolina.

Table 4. Two patterns of be leveling in Hyde County, North Carolina (adapted from

Wolfram 2003:293)

African Americans age 55–102

European Americans age 77–94

African Americans age 14–43

European Americans age 15–27

N 196 93 146 68 was leveling 76% 27% 62% 24%

African Americans age 55–102

European Americans age 77–94

African Americans age 14–43

European Americans age 15–27

N 95 26 76 22 weren’t leveling 48% 35% 5% 77%

As Wolfram (2003:292) discusses, African Americans of all ages strongly favor leveling to was (you was, they was), whereas this same leveling occurs about a quarter of the time among European Americans. On the other hand, older African Americans also level to weren’t (I weren’t, it weren’t) half the time whereas younger African Americans almost always use wasn’t. By contrast, older European Americans apply weren’t leveling about a third of the time whereas young European Americans apply it about three quarters of the time. Wolfram (2003:293) concludes:

The trajectory of change for African Americans contrasts dramatically with that for European Americans. Whereas younger African Americans relinquish weren’t leveling, younger European Americans intensify this pattern, showing that the different ethnic groups have taken different paths of change.

Note, finally, that AAVE varieties in some other isolated communities of

North Carolina have developed a surprising new form for past tense be+not: won’t [wont] (Hazen 1997). This variant is especially common among African Americans who also favor leveling to weren’t, as in Robeson County, NC:

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(8) All of them won’t saved. (AA, F 66)

I weren’t old enough to go into planning anything to get a job. (AA, F 66)

As Wolfram & Sellers (1999) explain, African Americans probably innovated won’t as a phonetic variant of weren’t, because unlike members of surrounding communities, they favor r-vocalization. (The vowel changes to [o] supposedly because of the obscuring effect of nasalization and the acoustic similarities between rounding and retroflexion.) 3.5 Do + not: present tense According to Weldon (1994), ain’t never alternates with present tense do + not in AAVE, apart from one apparent exception: “The only instance in which ain’t varies with present negated do in AAVE data is with the predicate got(ta). However, it appears that ain’t functions as the negative of have rather than do in these environments” (p. 390), for example: He ain’t even got a crease in his face. He don’t got one crease.

To clarify, consider Table 5 below. As shown, ain’t alternates only with present tense do + not before got in modern AAVE, while it alternates only with present tense have + not before got in Southern European American English (as in other nonstandard white varieties, e.g., Cheshire 1982:51). On the other hand, ain’t is used categorically before got in all varieties representing Earlier African American English, so there is no way of telling whether ain’t corresponds to do + not or have + not. Table 5. Distribution of ain’t vs. have + not or do + not in environment before got in AAVE (Weldon 1994: 382), in African Nova Scotian English (Howe 1995), Samaná English (ib.), the ex-slave recordings (ib.), the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000: 42), and in Southern European American Vernacular (Feagin 1979:226–227)

ain’t / don’t

ain’t / ? ain’t / have+

not AAVE ANSE SE ESR VN SWN

E N 63 24 45 10 9 29

ain’t 65% 100% 100% 100% 100% 72%

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The most reasonable explanation for the distribution in Table 5 is that the use of ain’t for have + not (§3.1) was favored categorically before got, and that another alternation developed in AAVE, not between the auxiliaries ain’t and don’t, but rather between the main verbs have and got. This possibility is supported by the presence of such variation in Earlier AAE, for example:

(9) I never had a strapping. I never got a strapping. (ANSE/039/350)

Beyond this special context (before got), use of ain’t for present tense do + not in AAVE is either unreported (e.g., Labov et al. 1968) or else denied (Weldon 1994:382–383, Howe & Walker 2000:121, Kautzsch 2000:42). And yet, examples of this usage are relatively easy to find, especially with the verbs want, have, and know, for example:

(10) Ain’t as do + not (present) in modern AAVE

I ain’t want some more. (Harlem AAVE; Labov et al. 1968: ex. 334)

All I gets is pounds, you ain’t want none of this. (DMX, Nowhere To Run)

ay, ay Hobb, you ain’t, you ain’t have no uh, you ain’t have no mu-fuckin’ seat on your b… on your bicycle.

(Jay Z, My First Song, 3:28)

you ain’t have to tell V nuttin’ (MF Doom, Lactose & Lecithin, 1:10)

leave em hangin’ like if I ain’t know where his hands been… (MF Doom, Saliva, 0:53)

I ain’t stack no paper, I don’t walk around wearin’ gators. (Big Pooh, Groupie Pt. 2, 0:26)

whoever ain’t get it ain’t supposed to. (MF Doom, A Dead Mouse, 1:09)

Ain’t also replaced present tense do + not in earlier African American English, though only very rarely. In fact, little more than a dozen examples have been found across all corpora representing earlier African American English. For example, in the African Nova Scotian English corpus, ain’t is never used for don’t, despite 347 potential environments. By contrast, recall that in this

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same corpus use of ain’t is categorical for have + not and near-categorical for be + not (see §3.1, §3.3). Similarly, in the Virginian narratives, ain’t occurs only twice for do + not while its usage is almost categorical for have + not and be + not. Following are some examples from the Ex-slave Recordings (11a), the Virginian narratives (11b), Samaná English (11c), and the ex-slave narratives (11d). These examples indicate that the verbs want, have, and know were favored contexts, as in modern AAVE.

(11) Ain’t as do + not (present) in Earlier African American English

a. If they whip you half a day, you ain’t want to eat. (ESR/013/181)

b. I hop’ ya ain’t wanna kno’ much mo’ ‘cause I ‘bout through. (Ishrael Massie, Perdue et al. 1976:210, Kautzsch 2000:42)

c. They gots many a things they ain’t have to operate. (SE/002/1250)

I ain’t know nothing ‘bout that. These the only thing what I know about. (SE/007/1674)

d. I ain’t gwine to tell no mo’ ‘cause I ain’t to make statement andtestify ‘bout sumpin’ I ain’ know ‘bout. (Tex 10:170)

Note, finally, that don’t rather than doesn’t is the normal form in third-person singular environments. Labov et al. (1968:247–248) find 83% (N = 90) use of don’t in NYC (96% among male teenage gang members), Fasold (1972: 124) finds 87.5% (N = 24) use of don’t, and Weldon (1994:367) finds 86% (N = 94). Leveling to don’t is by no means restricted to African American English, since Wolfram & Christian (1975:116) found 85% in their West Virginia study, and Feagin (1979:198) reports 99% (N = 147) use of don’t among urban working class European Americans from Anniston, Alabama. Incidentally, don’t is regularly pronounced without initial d in all nonstandard dialects, including AAVE (Labov et al. 1968; see also Feagin 1979:212).

3.6 Do + not: past tense Big ain’t even have a million dollars. [If] Big got a million dollars, that’s going in the bank. That just ain’t Big. Big ain’t give nobody a million dollars to do nothing. (Cease, MTV News interview by Corey Moss/Ryan J. Downey/Shaheem Reid, accessed 28 July 2004 at <http://www.rnation.com/bits/sep02.shtml>)

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The preceding is an excerpt from a September 2002 interview with Brooklyn-native Lil’ Cease (Junior MAFIA member) in which he reacts to an LA Times report that his late friend Notorious B.I.G. had paid out $1 million to have rival rapper Tupac Shakur shot. The sentence That just ain’t Big shows the mundane use of ain’t for isn’t (see §3.3 below) but the other two instances of ain’t correspond to didn’t. The following sentences further illustrate this special use of ain’t in modern AAVE:

(12) I ain’t know it was that serious man. (J-Live, Car trouble, 3:19)

you can blame Shawn, but I ain’t invent the game. (Jay Z, My Name is Hov, 1:44)

... then broke the fuck out but he ain’t try to rob him. (MF Doom, A Dead Mouse, 1:57)

ironically miss is wonderin’ why her cycle ain’t came. (Diverse, Ain’t Right, 2:30)

I ain’t step with no disrespect, just somethin’ in your eyes got me. (Big Pooh, Nobody But You, 0:20)

the music business hate me cuz the industry ain’t make me. (Jay Z, Moment of Clarity, 1:38)

The use of ain’t for didn’t is highly productive in AAVE, generally approximating 40%, as shown in the following table. Interestingly, this usage is widely considered unique to AAVE. For example, Wolfram (1991:293) states, “the correspondence of standard English didn’t [with ain’t] has only been found in Vernacular Black English varieties”. Similarly, Myhill (1995:124): “This usage of ain’t has to my knowledge only been reported in AAVE, not in any European American dialects”.

Table 6. Distribution of ain’t in contexts of didn’t in AAVE as spoken in New York City

(Labov et al. 1968:255–257), Philadelphia (Ash & Myhill 1986:37) and Columbus (N = 162; Weldon 1994:384).

Harlem, NYC 1960s

Philadephia, PA 1980s

Columbus, OH 1990s

ain’t 32–50% 20–60% 38% didn’t 68–50% 80–40% 62%

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Some researchers have suggested that ain’t can be used in this past tense context not because it is a variant of didn’t but rather because it is a creole-like tense-neutral negator in AAVE (Debose & Faraclas 1993:370; DeBose 1994). Others, such as Weldon (1994), argue more convincingly that “the (NEG past) variation is most likely part of a single system such that ain’t and didn’t are alternative surface realizations of the same underlying category” (p. 388). The latter category is evidently an English auxiliary, rather than a creole-like generic negator. For example, ain’t and didn’t are used as the same auxiliary for the same verb in the same sentence in (13a), from Philadelphian AAVE. Ain’t also participates regularly in other auxiliary functions, such as interrogative inversion (13b) and verb ellipsis (13c). ((13b,c) are NYC AAVE.)

(13) ain’t as didn’t in modern AAVE

a. I ain’t know y’all didn’t know each other. (Ash and Myhill 1986:35)

b. ain’t you know I had the recipe? (J-Live, always will be, 0:41)

c. Well, he didn’t do nothin’ much, and I ain’t neither. (Labov et al. 1968:255)

Focusing on the origin of the use of ain’t for didn’t, the following table shows that this use was almost, but not completely, absent in earlier African American English. Following are examples from each of African Nova Scotian English (14a), Samaná English (14b), the Ex-Slave Recordings (14c) and the Virginia Narratives (14d).2

Table 7. Distribution of ain’t in contexts of didn’t in African Nova Scotian English (Howe

1995), Samaná English (ib.), the ex-slave recordings (ib.), the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000:41)

ANSE SE ESR VN N 258 189 144 123

ain’t 2% 6% 3% 5% didn’t 98% 94% 97% 95%

2 Past tense morphology in preterit forms is variably doubled in preterit forms, for example:

my mother always did taught us. (SE/002/243) they didn’t have nothing ... they didn’t had nothing (SE/001/862–863) I ain’t saw it (SE/002/200)

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(14) ain’t as didn’t in earlier African American English

a. I didn’t see nothing [...] I ain’t see nothing. (ANSE/038/404–409)

b. He ain’t give the man nothing. [...] He didn’t give the man nothing. (SE/001/987–989)

c. I ain’t seed none. (ESR/010/36)

d. She didn’t give me no money but let me stay there an’ work for vitalsan’ clothes ‘cause I ain’t had no where to go.

(Fannie Berry, Perdue et al. 1976:37)

Since the earlier use of ain’t for didn’t is rare, it is useful to mention two other potential sources of information about the history of AAVE. On the one hand, Davis & Huang (1995) studied the AAVE spoken in Muncie, Indiana, where a small African American community has been surrounded by European American neighborhoods since the mid 1800s. Significantly, Davis & Huang report that African-American Munsonians never use ain’t for didn’t (p. 147).

On the other hand, recall that Singler (1998) studied the English spoken by fifteen elders from Sinoe County, Liberia. This community descends from ex-slaves who emigrated in the mid 1800s from the five state swath of America’s Deep South, from South Carolina to Louisiana. Crucially, Singler (1998:242) describes as a feature of Sinoenian English “the routine use of ain’t for didn’t”. Unfortunately, he does not substantiate his claim that such use of ain’t is “routine”, and he offers only this example:

(15) Who pregnant her, who ain’t pregnant her, the man, you know, youknow, gone or where, and she have to tote the load by herself.

(Florence)

Altogether, then, the regular use of ain’t for didn’t in modern AAVE appears to be a recent development. More specifically, I suggest that the dramatic rise of ain’t usage for didn’t was initiated by urban African American baby boomers. For instance, Labov et al. (1968) reported that in the sixties African American adolescents in Harlem made equal use ain’t and didn’t. By contrast, “adults use didn’t primarily, and make very little use of ain’t” (p. 255).

Donald Winford (personal communication, 1995) suggests that ain’t/didn’t variation began originally due to approximation when the earliest African Americans learned English as a second language (see also McWhorter 2000: 419ff.). However, Feagin (1979:215) reports three examples of ain’t functioning as didn’t in the nonstandard English spoken by European Americans in

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Alabama (e.g., I ain’t notice that). It is equally possible, then, that early African Americans simply inherited this variation from (colonial) Southern European American English to which they were exposed, and later exploited this variation in ways that Southern European Americans never did.3

4. Negative concord and related patterns AAVE shows two types of negative concord: to indefinites, and to verbs. This section examines these two negative constructions, as well as two other related ones: negative postposing, and negative inversion. 4.1 Negative concord to indefinites and negative postposing Negative concord applies regularly to various indefinites in AAVE, including plural nouns (16a), noncount nouns (16b), adverbials (16c), and pronouns (16d).

(16) a. Man, niggas don’t give a fuck about no lyrics no more man, shit. (Phonte, The Listening, 4:22)

you don’t send no hooks, no nuttin’ man. (9th Wonder, Whatever You Say, 5:24)

b. I was like fuck it, cuz I ain’t got no dough anyway. (Madlib, low class conspiracy, 1:31)

ain’t no time for commitment. (2Pac, Temptations, 0:50)

c. I ain’t never scared, I’m everywhere, you ain’t never there. (Jay Z, What More Can I Say, 4:06)

the sun, it ain’t even fun no more. (Jay Z, Allure, 0:39)

d. she won’t change for nobody. (J-Live, always will be, 2:05)

to the gritty ain’t none of us wack. (Chuck D, Public Enemy, Hazy Shade of Criminal, 2:10)

3 Alternatively, John Rickford (personal communication, 1994) suggests that Feagin’s Alabama

speakers may have been influenced by AAVE. Indeed, Labov et al. (1968) as well as Ash & Myhill (1986) report that white adolescents who associate with African Americans tend to adopt the use of ain’t for didn’t.

Negation in African American Vernacular English 187

Such negative concord is common in most nonstandard Englishes; for instance, it has a three quarters application rate (N = 718) in older Alabama Vernacular (Feagin 1979:232). However, Table 8 demonstrates that negative concord is (near-)categorical in AAVE. The rates discovered for Harlem AAVE in particular constitute the basis for Labov’s (1972:806) famous statement that negative concord in AAVE “is NOT optional; in the major environment, within the clause, NEGCONCORD to indeterminates in obligatory”.

Table 8. Rates of negative concord with indefinites within the same clause in New York City (N = 654; Labov et al. 1968:255–257), West Philadelphia (N = 150; Marjorie Goodwin, p.c., cited in Labov 1972:809), Detroit (lower working class; Wolfram 1969:159), Maryland (Whiteman 1976:46), and Washington DC (Light 1969:125)

Harlem NYC

Philly PA

Detroit MI

Maryland WA

Washington DC

97–100%4 97% 79–85%5 91–97%6 83%

Extremely high rates of negative concord are also found in the corpora representing earlier African American English, as shown in Table 9 below. The relatively lower rates given for African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English and the ex-slave recordings are due to the variable context assumed by Howe (1995) for these corpora: his calculations included plural and noncount nouns which are not preceded by no or any (49 in ANSE, 58 in SE, and 17 in ESR). Schneider (1989) did not include such tokens in his calculations such that, for instance, according to him negative concord has an application rate of 93% in the ex-slave recordings (p. 196). By contrast, Howe (1995) calculated a rate of only 80% for the same corpus (see Table 9). Furthermore, in his study of the Virginian narratives Kautzsch (2000) calculated only the use of ‘no’ forms (no one, nobody, nothing, etc.) relative to ‘any’ forms (anyone, anybody, anything, etc.). Howe (1995:77) reports analogous frequencies of no replacing any in African Nova Scotian English (92%, N = 285), Samaná English (94%, N = 143), and in the ex-slave recordings (92%, N = 75).

4 Jets 97.3%–98.7%; T-Birds 97.9%–100%. 5 79% with indefinite pronouns, 83% with determiners, and 85% with adverbs. 6 Females: 90.5%; males: 97.4%.

Darin Howe 188

Table 9. Rates of negative concord with indefinites within the same clause in African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English, the ex-slave recordings (Howe 1995), the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000:45) and the ex-slave narratives (Schneider 1989:196).

ANSE SE ESR VN ESN N 492 222 153 138 847 % 89% 66% 80% 94% 94%

Most linguists believe that singular indefinite count nouns do not participate in negative concord. Thus in her description of negative concord in Reading English, Cheshire (1982:65–66) reports: “With singular countable nouns the form a is used ... Negative concord does not occur with a”. Similarly, regarding negative concord in AAVE, Labov (1972:806) states: “The indefinite article a ... is not involved in NEGCONCORD ... the underlying form of no is NEG + any, not NEG + a, which is realized as not a: ‘I’m not a baby’”. But this claim (which is also adopted by Feagin 1979 and Schneider 1989:192 among others) is too strong, since in the following AAVE examples, no seems best interpreted as NEG + a, rather than as NEG + any.

(17) my momma didn’t raise no fool. (2Pac, Changes, 3:40)

I ain’t goin’ out like no sucka man! (Fatlip, It’s Jiggaboo Time, 1:11)

this ain’t no disposable circumference, cuz we ain’t goin’ nowhere,pump your fist. (Diverse, Big Game, 1:35)

yo bitch, I been doin’ this since about I was 8, ain’t no amateur. (Madlib, Astro Black, 0:45)

ain’t nuttin’ poppin’ about no broke nigga, I ain’t no joke. (2Pac, Heavy In The Game (1:10)

captain of the ship, a general, never no sergeant. (Buckwheat, I’m That Type of Nigga, 2:09)

Similarly, consider the following tokens from African Nova Scotian English. In the first example, the speaker is denying that he has been “a deacon” for all of thirty-seven years. In the next sentence, the relevant underlying expression is “a lot”. In both cases, no clearly has the interpretation NEG + a, rather than NEG + any.

Negation in African American Vernacular English 189

(18) it ain’t been thirty-seven... thirty-seven... I ain’t been no deacon thirty-seven year (...) it wouldn’t be thirty-seven years.

(ANSE/032/902)

(I bet a lot of people were scared Uncle Al, though, wasn’t they?)Everybody. No lot. Everybody. (ANSE/032/374)

Perhaps the most remarkable fact about negative concord in AAVE is that it is not clause-bound. On the one hand, negation spreads regularly to indefinites in a separate nonfinite clause, whether gerundive (19) or infinitival (20).

(19) We ain’t never had no trouble about none of us pullin’ out no knife. (Detroit 583:21; Wolfram 1969:153)

She shouldn’t be wastin’ the next 25 years of her life takin’ care o’ noold man.

(James E. Gaines as Beyonce’s grandfather in “The FightingTemptations”, Paramount, 2003)

(She shouldn’t be wasting the next 25 years of her life taking care ofan old man.)

(20) Nobody don’t want to have nothing to do with nobody that ain’t hot right now.

(Kool G Rap, Allhiphop.com interview accessed July 26, 2004 at<http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Zone/8717/>)

(Nobody wants to have anything to do with anybody that isn’t hotright now)

Ain’t no reason for me to kill nobody in the ring. (Muhammad Ali, after the match with Jimmy Ellis was stopped by

the referee in the twelfth round, July 1971)

but I ain’t ‘bout to hear no fuckin’ speech just cuz I wanna have some bacon. (Phonte, The Yo-Yo, 1:55)

these chicks around her ain’t tryin’ to give me no play. (Phonte, Shorty on the Lookout, 1:02)

I ain’t never pay a nigga to do no dirt for me I was scared to do myself. (Jay Z, Justify My Thug, 0:31)

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On the other hand, negative concord also applies recurrently to indefinites in separate finite clauses in so-called negative transportation constructions, that is, when the matrix clause has a neg-raising predicate (think, believe, etc.). For example:

(21) I don’t think that’s nobody’s mission, to change hip-hop or change rap, ‘cause there ain’t nothing wrong with it.

(P. Diddy, MTV interview accessed July 26, 2004 at<http://chronicmagazine.com/pdiddy.html>)

(I don’t think that’s anybody’s mission ...)

And I don’t think there is nothing I can do now to right my wrongs (Kayne West, ‘Jesus Walks’)

(... I don’t think there is anything I can do ...)

I believe in one God.. I believe that God talked to all prophets.. Idon’t believe that no prophet is no God

(Big Strike... www.djknice.com interview accessed July 26, 2004 at<http://www.djknice.com/StrikeInterview.htm>)

(... I don’t believe that a(ny) prophet is a God)

When you didn’t think that nobody knew, you see the girls are talkin’.(TLC, Girl Talk)

Corpora representing earlier African American English similarly display negative concord across nonfinite clauses, e.g. (22), as well as across finite clauses in neg-raising constructions, e.g. (23).

(22) I ain’t gon’ let ‘em carry me in no more chair. (SE/007/886)

They wouldn’t let us know nothin’ ‘bout stuff like that. (ESR/013/293)

Yas, everything that I’m tellin’ ya I’m a witness to an’ I don’t want totell ya nothing that ain’t true.

(Ishmael Massie, VN/Perdue et al. 1976:206)

(23) I don’t think that takes off no weight. (ANSE/019/579)

You ain’t ‘posed to eat no food. (ANSE/038/306)

Negation in African American Vernacular English 191

You’re not supposed to sue nobody. (ANSE/016/236)

I don’ ‘spect I ever kin reckomember much no more. (ESN/Ga 8:95)

some times dey didn’t look like dey’d been wore none hardly. (ESN/Ga 9:157)

In exceptional cases, negation can also spread across a finite clause without a neg-raising predicate being present, as in (24). Although cases like these are vanishingly rare, they are not easily dismissed since even in standard English, negation can license a polarity item across a finite clause, for example: I haven’t heard that anything hasn’t happened. (cf. *I’ve heard that anything hasn’t happened).7

(24) he supposed to be well because I ain’t heared that nothing is happen. (SE/006/1493)

Note, finally, that in AAVE as in standard English, preverbal negation can be omitted if the verb phrase contains a negative word, such that negative concord is obviated. For example:

(25) y’all talkin’ loud plus y’all sayin nuthin’. (Madlib, Real Eyes, 1:43)

I’m never hittin’ no coke, that’s no joke. (Madlib, Astro travellin, 0:36)

to this I be no stranger. (Phife (A Tribe Called Quest), Rumble In the Jungle, 1:34)

we gonna get paid regardless, so if it’s no crowd we could justpretend. (J-Live, add-a-cipher, 3:37)

say goodbye, you got no class. (Redman, Maaad Crew, 1:06)

your armour no match for me. (Diverse, Certified, 2:08)

I see no changes. (2Pac, Changes, 0:17)

7 Nonetheless, a sentence like (24) is highly problematic for movement-based approaches to

negative concord, such as Haegeman’s (1995:80–83). This is because a ‘that-trace effect’ would be generated by the movement of the negated indefinite at LF, assuming quantifier raising.

Darin Howe 192

Check it out I got no more words. (2:02)

Negative postposing occurs in all varieties of Earlier AAE, though to varying degrees: there are six tokens in the African Nova Scotian English data (Howe 1995), 54 in the Samaná English data (Howe 1995), 12 in the ex-slave recordings (Howe 1995), 24 in the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000:47), and 18 tokens (13 speakers) in the ex-slave narratives (Schneider 1989:194). According to Howe (1995), the verbs most favorable to negative postposing are, in order, have, be, got, know, give, and make. In her large-scale study of colloquial English, Tottie (1991:233) also found that most negative postposing occurs with these verbs. However, unlike in other colloquial Englishes, negative postposing in African American English can also take place across clauses (just like negative concord), for example:

(26) That one had time to take out nothing. (SE/002/228)

(cf. he didn’t have time to take out anything) 4.2 Negative concord to verbs and negative inversion Negative concord can also apply to verbs in AAVE, as in (27), though this is less common than negative concord to indefinites. As Labov (1972:806) remarks, “NEGCONCORD is never obligatory to the pre-verbal position” (that is, the locus of inflection in negative sentences, where auxiliaries, do-support and modals appear). For instance, application rates for negative concord to verbs varied between 28% (N = 99) and 39% (N = 149) among Harlem gang members (Labov 1972:807).

(27) I see you trying to hide, hoping that nobody don’t notice. (2Pac, They Don’t Give a Fuck about Us (Outlaws))

None of ’em can’t fight. (Ray L., 14, Jets, Labov 1972:786)

Nobody can’t step on her foot. (Detroit 444:4, Wolfram 1969:154)

In Earlier African American English, too, negative concord to verbs was irregular, as shown in the following table. Some examples from the various corpora are given in (28).

Negation in African American Vernacular English 193

Table 10. Rates of negative concord to verbs within the same clause in African Nova Scotian English, Samaná English, ex-slave recordings (Howe 1995), Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000:46), and ex-slave narratives (Scheider 1989:194)

ANSE SE ESR VN ESN N 22 25 5 20 34 % 55 60 0 5 21

(28) Nobody down in Cherry Brook didn’t like her. (ANSE/030/742)

nobody here went [...] nobody didn’t go. (SE/003/625–626)

No white folks didn’t leave me nothing but de wide world. (Anna E. Crawford, Perdue et al. 1976:77)

None of us warn’t big enough to do no work. (Ga 8: 92)

Negative concord to verbs was likely inherited from nonstandard colonial European American English. The following examples are from Alabama vernacular:

(29) None of em didn’t hit the house. (Feagin 1979:229)

And neither of the boys can’t play a lick of it. (Feagin 1979:236)

Nobody don’t believe it now. (Feagin 1979:241)

Negative concord to verbs may be irregular in part because of a competing pattern in AAVE: negative inversion, e.g., (30). In this structure, which is also very productive in Southern European American English (e.g., Feagin 1979:234–242, 252, contra Wolfram 1969:154), the negated auxiliary/modal precedes the indefinite subject, such that negative concord to the verb is obviated.8

(30) but don’t nobody care what you sayin’. (Big Pooh, The Listening, 1:07)

to the gritty ain’t none of us wack. (Chuck D (Public Enemy), Hazy Shade of Criminal, 2:10)

8 Alabama vernacular, with negative concord, reveals that the indefinite subject needn’t

undergo concord negated under inversion: And couldn’t anybody do it but Charlotte. (Feagin 1979:242).

Darin Howe 194

can’t none o’ y’all mirror me back. (Jay Z, Encore, 0:29)

but ain’t no future bright for me. (2Pac, So Many Tears, 2:48)

ain’t nobody fuckin’ after her. (MF Doom, A Dead Mouse, 2:10)

‘Rule baby!’ and ain’t shit gon’ change. (Ja Rule, 4 Seasons, 3:38)

And I don’t trust nobody, so don’t nobody trust me. (Young Noble, U Don’t Have 2 Worry)

don’t nobody give a damn. (8ball, Down And Out (Lost), 0:23)

The examples in (31) further illustrate that negative inversion is possible in relatives and other embedded clauses headed by that. As Sells et al. (1996) discuss, this fact strongly suggests that the negated auxiliary/modal does not move to the complementizer position, but rather that the indefinite subject remains in situ (in VP-internal position).

(31) All praises due to the creator for this man here, that can’t no nigga stand near

(Ice Cube, Record Company Pimpin’ (War And Peace Vol. 2 (Peace))

You got to know, that can’t nobody stop my flow (Lil’ Flip, Drugz (Screwed))

I just hope that don’t nobody bring none of the street shit to the showthis year. (8ball, vh1.com interview accessed July 27, 2004 at <http://www.vh1.com/artists/news/1446784/08202001/eightball_mjg.jhtml>)

Negative inversion is also present, though very rare, in corpora representing Earlier AAE, e.g. (32). The Ex-slave Recordings African and the Nova Scotian English data each include four unambiguous cases of negative inversion, while none occur in the Samaná English or the Virginian narratives (Kautzsch 2000). Negative inversion is apparently more frequent in the ex-slave narratives, since Schneider (1989:195) describes it as “[t]he most common way of achieving emphasis in negated clauses in [Earlier Black English].”

(32) Can’t no one get there. (ANSE/019/564)

Wasn’t nobody embalmed dem days. (Ga 2:208)

Negation in African American Vernacular English 195

Couldn’t nobody dat lived in Mer-ree-dian right after de Surrender ever forgit Seventh Street an’ where it head to. (Miss 6:61)

Didn’ no white people stay in Africa (ESR/012/51)

The following two examples show that an expletive (there) can accompany negative inversion; this lends further support to the above-mentioned claim (Sells et al. 1996) that the thematic subject remains in situ in this construction. The second example further illustrates that negative inversion can occur with many. This fact was also reported by Labov et al. (1968) in their study of Harlem AAVE, e.g., Don’t many of them live around here (Cleveland, 12, ex. 350).

(33) So there wouldn’t nobody interfere with me and tell who I belong to. (ESR/008/121)

There couldn’t many of them go to school. (ESR/008/157)

Returning now to negative concord to verbs, note that (like concord to indefinites) negation can also spread to verbs across clauses. Following are some examples from earlier African American English, some involving a neg-raising predicate (34), and others without such a predicate present (35). In each case, the surrounding discourse context made it clear that the negation in italics is pleonastic, rather than logically intended.

(34) I don’t think some of them ain’t no better than the one that don’t go to church. (ANSE/009/743)

I don’t think they ain’t gonna ch- not gonna change. (ANSE/00h/98)

I didn’t think it wasn’t no phone then. (ANSE/030/451)

My mammy don’t think they ain’t nobody like Miss Fannie. (Callie Sheperd, ex-slave, b. 1852, TX (WPA, n. 17))

But don’t you think that I’m not gon’ take it. Not me, no. (SE/007/1291)

(35) You don’t know nobody what don’t want to hire nobody to donothin’ does you? (Ala 4: 143)

Well isn’t nobody wouldn’t go out. (ANSE/030/812)

Darin Howe 196

if he ain’t the right man what not to suffer with people, he don’t do nothing with the people. (SE/011/1016)

Comparable examples from more contemporary AAVE are difficult to find, but exist nonetheless, for example:

(36) It ain’t no way no girl can’t wear no platforms to no amusement park.(Baugh 1983:83)

(There isn’t any way a girl can wear (any) platforms to (any) amusement park.)

It ain’t no brother of mine can’t help us in hard times. (Baugh 1983:83)

(There isn’t any brother of mine (who) can help us in hard times.)

It ain’t no cat can’t get in no coop. (Labov 1972:773)

(There isn’t any cat (that) can get in any coop.)

it wasn’t no girls couldn’t go with us. (Wolfram 1969:155)

(There weren’t any girls (that) could go with us.)

The neg-raising cases such as (34) may well have developed by analogy to the (standard) English pattern, They’re not going to change, I don’t think. Feagin (1979:229) recorded several examples of the latter pattern in her study of Southern European American English. The other cases (35, 36) may also represent an elaboration of existing patterns in (standard) English. For instance, Nolan (1991:176–177) gives the following two examples from “almost standard English” (Mencken 19:567):

(37) It never occurred to me to doubt that your work ... would not advance our common object in the highest degree.

(Charles Darwin, Jespersen 1962:75)

I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t rain. [= I wouldn’t be surprised if it did rain.]

Note, finally, that negative concord to verbs (and indefinites) across clauses is also found in nonstandard varieties of European American English. As in

Negation in African American Vernacular English 197

African American English, sentences with neg-raising are favored environments, for example:

(38) But she don’t look like she ain’t doing nothing wrong. (Mel McDaniel, Baby Got Her Blue Jeans On (1985))

I wasn’t sure that nothing wasn’t gonna come up at all (Appalachian English, Wolfram & Christian 1976:113; 35:23)

5. Conclusion This chapter has described the use of various negative structures in African American English: use of ain’t for be+not, have+not, and do+not; negative concord to indefinites and to verbs, both within and between clauses; negative postposing; and negative inversion. Examples were mostly drawn from rap, a form of music that now gives millions (including linguists) unparalleled access to African American English in its most vernacular form.

This chapter has also described the diachronic trajectory of each negative structure over the last century and a half by comparing modern AAVE with corpora representing earlier African American English. We have seen that several patterns have remained remarkably stable during this period:

- the almost categorical use of ain’t for present tense have + not and be+not, and of negative concord to indefinites;

- the variable use of negative concord to verbs; - the rare use of negative inversion; - the very rare use of ain’t for present tense do + not, and of negative

concord to verbs across clauses.

By contrast, other patterns have intensified, notably the use of ain’t for past tense do + not, which has multiplied almost tenfold (from 2–6% to 40–60%). Still other patterns have disappeared, for instance, the restricted use ain’t for past tense have + not and be + not.

Several of these patterns require new research. For example, the use of ain’t for present tense do + not merits further investigation because it is unparalleled in other varieties of English (though it is common in English-based creoles). Its origins are therefore obscure, and its status in modern AAVE is undocumented and even denied (§3.5). There is also much need for updated research on negative concord in modern AAVE; apparently no quantitative studies of this

Darin Howe 198

phenomenon have been carried out since the 1970s. It is hoped that this new research will pay special attention to issues raised by the present study, such as negative concord to ‘a (singular count noun)’ and the interaction of negative concord and negative transportation (neg-raising).

you ain’t got to say no more man, that’s it man. (Method Man, How High, 4:32)

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