What is ‘immutable’?
terms invariant (also known as out of habit And aspect is) refers to a common feature of African-American English in which the verb form is inflected To be—i.e., it’s simple To be as opposed to forms To be alike To be or Present—used to indicate that something happens often or out of habit. Here are some examples of immutability To be using:
The kids are walking (on foot) to the bus stop. = The children usually walk to the bus stop.
I work six days a week. You know I’m tired. = I work six days a week. You know I’m usually tired.
They don’t really like the outdoors. That’s why they stay in the house. = They don’t really like outdoor activities. That’s why they usually stay indoors./ That’s why they usually stay indoors.
I’m singing (singing) in the bathroom. = I usually sing in the shower.
The club is lit on Friday. — Alysia Nicole Harris, The Non-Aspectual Meaning of African American English ‘Aspectual’ Markers, 2019 = Clubs are usually lit on Fridays.
I’m looking for somewhere to waste time. — African American English speaker of unknown origin, quoted in African American English: A Linguistic Introduction, 2002 = I am often looking for somewhere to waste time.
… they are bothering you while you try to do your job. … — unidentified African American English speaker, quoted in the Corpus of Regional African American Language (https://oraal.uoregon.edu/coraal), 1969 = They often annoy you when you are trying work./They often annoy you while you are trying to do your job.
The To be usually placed between the subject (the word or phrase that performs the action in the sentence) and the predicate (everything in the sentence or clause that is not the subject) of the sentence. The predicates can follow To be are verbs, noun phrases, prepositional phrases, adverb phrases, and adjectives. Finished (another common feature of African American English) can also be directly followed invariant in one sentence. (To review some of these grammar terms, check out this article.)
Is the ‘immutable’ grammar?
For untrained eyes or ears, invariant can easily look like a false substitute for To be (or To be); However, invariant follow specific patterns and grammar rules.
In 1998, Janice Jackson, a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst at the time, performed a study in children around the age of 5 and 6 to highlight invariant feature. In the group, one group of children spoke African-American English as their primary language, while the other group spoke only standard American English. In her office, she shows children pictures of famous children’s shows, Sesame Street. One photo shows Elmo eating cookies and another shows Cookie Monster sick in bed. Although Cookie Monster got his name from his frequent eating of cookies, he was not pictured with any cookies at the time.
When Jackson asked, “Who’s eating the cookies?” AAE speakers in the group pointed to Cookie Monster, while SAE speakers pointed to Elmo. When Jackson later asked, “Who’s eating the cookies?” AAE speakers have identified Elmo, clearly distinguishing invariant And To be (present third person singular of ) To be). Children say AAE shows the ability to recognize invariant and its functions, and possess knowledge of standard American English grammar. Today, this study is often cited to show that there is a clear grammatical difference between African-American English and Standard American English, and that invariant not a grammatical misuse of Standard American English To be.
What are some characteristics of ‘immutability’?
As mentioned before, invariant usually comes between the subject and the predicate, but can also come at the end of a sentence.
Some people like it and some don’t. That’s just the way it is.
Although this use To be called invariantsome African American English speakers also use invariant To be with one -S Final:
That’s it.
IN African American English: An Introduction to the Languagelinguist Dr. Lisa J. Green suspects that the form there are simply add to the idea of frequency or routine:
As explained in the discussion of the aspect To bemarker is unlike other verb forms in that it cannot be divided into different number and person forms (for example: To be, To be, To be), so it remains immutable, unaffected in its template, regardless of the person and number of subjects: I/we are, you are, he/she/it/they are. if aspect To be is not marked for people or numbers, what is the role of the -s attached to it… ? Most likely words -S is working here as a marker of habit and because aspect To be is a sign of inherent habit, verbal -S is redundant: it is doing what aspect To be did.
This type of fallback is also found when invariant appear with adverbs of frequency like frequent, always, oftenAnd never. In such cases, the To be Usually comes right after the adverb:
It is always the ones you least suspect. = That is always the thing you least suspect.
They often lie. = They often lie./ They often lie.
You always watch TV. = You always watch TV.
invariant also have a special place in questions and negative sentences. To negate a statement, do not Used:
Although she is playing outside, she is not tired. = Although she always plays outside, she usually doesn’t get tired.
My brother can’t eat his vegetables. = My brother usually doesn’t eat his vegetables.
To form a question using invariantverb form DO placed before the subject:
Is John cooking dinner? = Does John usually cook dinner?/Does John usually cook dinner?
Are you watching horror movies? = Do you often watch horror movies?
Sometimes, AAE speakers also put do before the subject to form a question; however, this is less common.
But that’s not all
There is some dispute and ongoing research on some invariantthe meaning of. In spite of invariant also called out of habitScholars and linguists, such as H. Samy Alim and William Labov have also contributed to research on the meaning and usage of the word. invariant in unfamiliar African-American English (in the sense of out of habit means “often or repeatedly doing or practicing something or acting in a certain way”). In such uses, To be can identify subject with predicate, emphasize or convey commitment. Additional meanings of To be has raised questions for researchers as to whether these significant variations suggest that there are To bes rather than the different reading of invariant.
While invariant is a feature of African American English, the unmodified form of To be Habitual meanings have also been identified in other variations of English in the United States and beyond, although they may not be quite the same in usage. terms invariant And out of habit are also used to describe these features in other English variants.
Similar African American English features related to words To be And finished in applications that linguists call emphasize BIN And complete.
Source:
Janice Eurana Jackson, Linguistic aspects in African-American English-speaking children: An investigation of the “be” aspect (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1998).
Katie Martin and Raffaella Zanuttini, Immutable. Yale Grammar Diversity Project: English in North America, (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University, 2017).
Lisa J. Green, African-American English: An Introduction to Linguistics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 34-70.
Ralph W. Fasold and Carolyn Kessler, Tense Marking in Black English: A Linguistic and Social Analysis (Arlington, Virginia: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1972), 150-183.
Sonja L. Lanehart, The Oxford Handbook of African American Language (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 353-370.
Tyler Kendall, Jason McLarty and Charlie Farrington, Online Resources for African American Languages. (Eugene, Oregon: Online Resources for the African American Language Project, 2020)
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Synergy (Amherst, Massachusetts, Fall 1998)
Categories: Usage Notes
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