Dr. See-Young Cho Summer term 1996

UE: English Dialectology

 

 

Social Dialects of American English

 

 

Worksheet

 

 

1. Examine Audiocassette Sample #9 and isolate the facts illustrating sex differences in American English according to:

 

1. vocabulary

2. standard versus nonstandard

3. certainty versus uncertainty

4. range of intonation

 

Female Coach: ...we need you for the game next weekend.

Teenager: Do you think we can win?

Coach: I'm sure we can; we'll have to try our hardest.

 

Male Coach: ... we need you for the game next weekend.

Teenager: Can we whip them, coach?

Coach: There ain't no way we can lose if we hustle.

 

Businesswoman: Bill, I'm not at all certain that these contracts are properly drawn up. Maybe we should check them.

Businessman: Oh. I'll tell Fred to go over them. He's very thorough.

 

Businessman 1: Bill, I'm sure these contracts are not properly drawn up.

Businessman 2: Oh, I'll have Fred go over them. He's very thorough.

 

Girl: Tom, I really had a lovely time at the dance.

Boy: Yeah, I had a great time too.

 

 

2. Audiocassette Sample #10 illustrates an older speaker trying to impress younger speakers with his knowledge of their slang. Identify the age-specific items in Audiocassette Sample # 10. Provide a tentative gloss for the meaning of any constructions or vocabulary items you don't know.

 

Older Man: Those are cool wheels you have there, man. Far out!

Boy: Is he for real?

Older Man: You don't dig my lingo? I mean, you don't dig where I'm coming from?

Girl: That's a heavy trip!

 

 

3. Audiocassette Sample # 12 contains some examples of vernacular Black English today. Listen to the sentences with the following transcript and try to convert these Black English sentences into ordinary sentences of Standard English.

 

a. It ain't nobody here.

b. Don't nobody never mess with me.

c. I don't know did he leave.

d. He done been eat.

 

 

4. Examine the specialized jargon bear in the following sentences and translate them in Standard English.

 

Truck Driver: Quaker Nine, there's a bear at the intersection of 495 and 66, and he's on my tail.

 

Announcer: This is your latest report from the New York Stock Exchange. Today prices continued to fall for the second straight week. Yes, it was a bear market!

 

Student: That course was a bear!