African american english in rap music (da English but not quite - Palusci), Schemi e mappe concettuali di Linguistica Inglese

Scarica African american english in rap music (da English but not quite - Palusci) e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Linguistica Inglese solo su Docsity! ENGLISH BUT NOT QUITE O.PALUSCI AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH IN RAP MUSIC: PUBLIC ENEMY’S “WORD FROM MOTHERLAND” PAG. 115 - Rap as postmodern form In this study the author used the tools of sociolinguistic. She analysed a range of grammatical and lexical features in the songs of Public Enemy. The aim is to identify those African American foundations that Public Enemy shape into a new building. H. Baker: rap is a postmodern means of expression, “non authoritative collaging of sound and styles that be speaks a decostructive hybridity. Rap invest the act of speaking with power. The result is a mixture of semiotic signs: is descriptive and performative. Its aim is the construction of a discourse of resistance. Rap has exploited (sfruttato) the issues (questioni) of ethnicity and class. Gangstarap, developed in the late 80’s when the socio-economic relations between blacks and whites in California were not simple. Rapper as Ice Cube construct a variety of first person narratives to illustrate social and economic realities in LA. Due (a causa) to the rise of the unemployment rate (aumento del tasso di disoccupazione). Some street gangs in LA tried to gain control of crime market. Trcia Rose: this situation contributed first to the formation of rap. She believes that the narratives of gangstarap do not incise to violence: they make an attempt to (tentano) familiarize other cultures with oppression and harshness (durezza) of African americans. First person use is more objective street journalism. Now rap is spreading (diffondendo) among whites. Kelley emphasizes rap’s liberating quality consisting in reappropriation of black resistance by a white audience. Russel Porter underlines that the history of African American culture is an account to resistance. Rap music construct group identity or express protests against a society. Smitherman identifies rap as cultural evolution of the black oral tradition, expresses the desire to set (liberare) a.a. free by lyrics of trans-formation and self determination. - Rap according to Public Enemy P.E. use and African American English. Rap is archaic but it also incorporates the white noise of the city. This genre recycles fragments sound taken from various context. The result is a fusion of languages and rhythms. African americans roots reflect some ideas of the black panther party. The band is politically close to the nation of islam. Lyrics have a double side: they maintain a verbal violence as a weapon to fight for supremacy, but they also transmit the value of African American community. In the album “ fear of a black planet” the topics are ethnicity and attacks on the white power. - Is African American English a Public Enemy? The roots of African American vernacular resonance survives in the transformed verbal gestures aand new inflections. A.A.E. is used in mainly by American blacks. African American English has been marked as a marginal English variety, because it do not follow standard rules of American English. Nonethless A.A.E has a strong social impact. The author analysed twenty five songs by P.E. since 1987 until 1991. - Multiple negation A.A.E. frequently uses multiple negation. In sentences like that, the negative meanings is maintained anyway. In S.A.e. two negatives always male a positive sentence. “American English. Dialects an variation” shows 4 main patterns that describe the use of multiple negation: 1) the negation is attacked to the auxiliary and the indefinite; 2) (most in southern) the indefinite preces the verb; 3) (southern) the negative auxiliary is placed at the beginning of the sentence and the indefinite precedes the verb; 4) multiple negative elements can be found across different clauses (concerns exclusively A.A.E.). P.E. songs generally show examples of multiple negation which do not belong to the fourth category. - Elision of copula (parte del predicato nominale corrispondente al solo verbo: “il padre è severo”) The contracted forms of the verb to be are not used in A.A.E. Absence of copula occurs often in the following context: - before adjectives; - / nominals; - / adverbs; - / prepositional phrases; - Is and are are also omitted frequently in questions. In the lyrics of P.E. we find examples of this feature. - Subject-verb agreement (accordo soggetto-verbo) Variation about agreement (accordo) between subject and verb follow several (diversi) patterns: most of these are only in African american English. African American English omit the S suffix on the third person singular of verbs in presente tense. Was is generally used as only past tense of the verb to be both for singular and plural subjects. Another feature (caratteristica) in the songs by P.E. is: where subject pronoums must anyways be expressed, several (molte) sentences do not have subject. - Invariant be Invariant be is a feature unique to A.A.E. . The verb to be is used to indicate actions which are repeated overtime (nel tempo). In such context be is invariant (it is declined). If in standard ametican English “I’m good” indicates a stable quality, in African American English “I be good” indicates someone who is not permanently but intermittently good. Invariant be is not used in African American English and in Public Enemy songs. - Dummy there/it (fittizio la/esso) In existetial sentences “there” works as dummy subject. In the lyrics analysed, “there” is often elided. The explanation is that this can happen when existential sentences are used in the negative form (i.e. “no need to lie”). - Auxiliary deletion (cancellazione ausiliaria) In Standard America english auxiliaries have, be , will, would can be contracted depending on the linguistic environment. In African American English the contractions are deleted (especially with have). The reason – probably – is related to the distinction among past simple and presente perfect: this is often sacrificed in favour of past tense. - Fronting In the lyrics analysed, word order is not respected. Rap music like poetry is concerned with rhyme and rhythm. The frequency of fronting cases is not just due (dovuta) to reasons of rhythm, but to emphasis.