36 Nonstandard Patterns
Here is a list of 36 different language patterns that are associated with Southern varieties of English. This list is adapted from lists that have been published in Oetting and McDonald (2001) and Oetting and Pruitt (2005). Unless noted, all patterns are described in the literature as possible in Southern African American English (SAAE) and Southern White English (SWE); however, research on these forms has primarily focused on varieties of African American English (AAE).
Zero be: Instances where copula and auxiliary be contexts are zero-marked (e.g., They in the car). Zero-marking of be is rare or infrequent in some contexts (e.g., with first person pronouns, in past tense contexts, clause final positions, and in contexts with emphatic stress). This pattern occurs in many vernacular dialects of English in and outside of the US (e.g., Ireland); however, rate of zero be differs in AAE and SWE.
Go copula: Instances where go is produced, but in Standard American English a copula be would be produced (e.g., There go a duck for There is a duck). This pattern has been reported in Northern varieties of AAE and has been documented in only our AAE samples that were elicited from speakers who lived in an urban area.
Be2: Instances where be is produced to signify an event or activity distributed intermittently over time or space, including auxiliary and copula contexts that refer to durative or habitual meaning (e.g., It be on the outside). Utterances with omitted will and other Standard American English uses of be (e.g., I’m going to be a dog) are not included. This pattern is thought to occur most frequently in AAE.
I’ma: Instances where i’ma is produced instead of the Standard American English, I’m going to (e.g., I’ma go peek and see if my class gone out that way). This pattern is mentioned in discussions of reduced gonna forms and is thought to occur primarily in AAE.
Subject-verb agreement with be forms: Instances where the person and number of the be form differs from its subject (e.g., When we is about to go to church).
Zero auxiliary do: Instances where auxiliary do is zero-marked but in Standard American English, its presence is obligatory. Many instances of this pattern within our data involve question inversion (e.g., How you get up here? and What you did?). Questions with an omitted do in the initial position of the utterance (e.g., You know what? and You got a baby?) are not counted. See discussion below about the coding of noninverted indirect requests/questions.
Zero auxiliary have: Instances where auxiliary have, has, and had is not produced but in Standard American English, its presence is obligatory (e.g., I only been there a few times). As demonstrated by the example, many of these utterances involve the verb been.
Zero regular third present: Instances where regular third person –s marking on the verb is zero-marked (e.g., But when she poo on herself I don’t change her). Decisions as to whether the context is present or past tense is based on context.
Zero irregular third present: Instances where the subject of the verbs say, have, and do requires says, has and does in Standard American English but the child produces the unmarked form (e.g., She just do it herself). Utterances involving don’t are not included since they are counted elsewhere. For the verb, say, all zero-marked forms are considered third present irregular. This decision is based on speakers’ frequent use of historical present with the verbs say (e.g., So she says stop it). Within the sociolinguistic literature, a distinction between regular vs. irregular verb forms is not always made, although some like Myhill and Harris (1986) exclude the verb say in analyses of variable marking of third person because it is irregular, and they feel it is typically zero-marked.
Subject-verb agreement with don’t: Instances where the subject of the verb requires doesn’t in Standard American English, but the child produces don’t (e.g., And he don’t go to school).
Zero regular past: Instances where unmarked verbs are produced but in Standard American English, simple past marking is obligatory (e.g., I dress them before).
Zero irregular past: Instances where an irregular verb is zero-marked for past tense (e.g., fall for fell), or a different past tense form is used instead of a Standard American English form (e.g., Course I brung him up real fast). In some cases, the different verb form is the participle (e.g. I seen it).
Preterite had + Ved: Instances where had + a past tensed verb is produced and the Standard American English gloss would be the simple past (e.g., One day I had went on the back of the levee to the beach). This pattern has been documented to occur primarily in narratives, and in our data, its use has been limited to our AAE samples (both rural and urban). Nevertheless, a number of people have told us that this pattern is produced in a variety of nonstandard dialects spoken in the Northeast.
Overregularization: Instances where regular past tense marking is used with an irregular verb form (e.g., She drinked it all).
Zero or alternative participles: Instances where past participles are either zero-marked (e.g., It got drop) or expressed with a simple past tense form and in Standard American English a participle form is required (e.g., But her whole head got broke).
Stressed BIN: Stressed BIN contexts describe an event that is thought to be on-going or the completive activity is in the remote past (e.g., Because I BIN having them for a bunch of times, and I BIN had shots). Been uses involving clear cases of zero-marked have are not included in this category but are included as instances of zero have (see above). BIN is thought to occur in AAE.
Ain’t: Instances where ain’t is used and in Standard American English, negative forms involving be, do, or have are obligatory (e.g., We ain’t got none).
Multiple negation: Instances where negation is marked more than once in the utterance (e.g., Cause she don’t want no people on the rocks). This pattern often occurs with don’t and ain’t.
Indefinite article: Instances where indefinite article a is used and the following context involves a vowel (e.g., It’s a animal story). This pattern is thought to occur in AAE.
Zero present progressive: Instances where the present progressive –ing inflection is zero-marked and in Standard American English, overt marking is obligatory (e.g., Yep I’m build one of those). In our data, this pattern is rare and decreases with age.
Zero plural: Instances where the regular plural inflection is zero-marked and in Standard American English, overt marking is obligatory (e.g., Six dollar and fifty-five). This pattern is thought to occur most frequently with nouns of weights and measures or with nouns preceded by quantification.
Zero possessive: Instances where the possessive inflection is zero-marked and in Standard American English, overt marking is obligatory (e.g., We’ll probably need everybody plates).
Omission of infinitive to: Instances where infinitive to is omitted. Omission of to as a preposition is not counted (e.g., My sister asked me if I wanted her bake some cookies with the sugar).
For to/to: Instances where for to is produced and in Standard American English infinitive to is produced. We have found two instances of this pattern in our data (e.g., I mean for to take a walk and For to go to store and pay).
Zero of: Instances where the preposition of is omitted (e.g., I can’t tell too much the story yet).
What for that or zero that: Instances where the relative pronoun what is produced (e.g., Anything what my momma brings) or the relative pronoun is omitted and it is obligatory in Standard American English (e.g., It’s a girl got a skirt on; Then came a little boy had a net in his hand; and I got a baby brother came out of my mama stomach). Relative pronouns in the subject and object position are included in our counts even though absence of that occurs in some Standard American English object clauses.
Done + verb: Instances where done + verb indicates a completive action or event (e.g. He’s looking for his cat but it done went down the garbage can).
Fixin, fitna and Alternative Modals: Instances where fixing and fitna are used as a main verb and followed by an infinitive (e.g., He is fixing to go off of the roof like that). We also include use of alternative modals such as might gotta (e.g., I might gotta take you somewhere) in this category because all of these patterns are infrequent in our data.
Undifferentiated pronoun: Instances where the unmarked pronoun form is used instead of the Standard American English nominative (e.g., Me and him do it sometimes). As can be seen by the example, these are typically produced in conjoined noun phrases. Also included in this category are instances where nominative marking is used instead of genative (e.g., They cat), and instances where masculine forms are used instead of feminine (e.g., He do it). Both of these latter two (like some of the other patterns on this list) may be generated by phonological factors, but they are included because of their influence on surface morphology.
Reflexive: Instances where a different reflexive pronoun form is produced instead of a Standard American English form (e.g, My daddy once went by hisself because he didn’t want to be worried about us).
Demonstrative: Instances where the objective pronoun form is produced instead of the demonstrative (e.g., He wrecked them back tires).
Dative: Instances where a personal dative is produced (e.g., I take me a shot).
Y’all varieties: Instances where a variant of ya’ll is produced instead of a Standard American English pronoun (e.g., y’all take turns; allya’ll take turns, ya’lls take turns).
Appositive: Instances where both a pronoun and noun is used to refer to the same person(s) or object (s) (e.g., But my friend, he have a gate). This pattern occurs in Standard American English but is thought to be more frequent in AAE and SWE varieties.
Existential it and they: Instances where it or they is used instead of there (e.g., My dad grabs it with a paddle whenever it’s only men).
Wh- noninversion: Instances where a Wh- question form begins the utterance or clause, but the auxiliary is not inverted (e.g., Why this one won’t sit).
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