Julie McClure
APLING 623
Critique of Dillard’s “On the Structure of Black English”:
relationship to cultural “Standard”
September 23, 2012
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Structures of Black English: relationship to cultural “Standard”
“On the Structure of Black English” introduces many grammatical variations
concerning verb tenses, pronoun use, adverbial clauses, and prepositional practices.
Dillard’s remarks on the White gaze, which exoticizes Black English, interested me
more than the countless examples of grammatical structures he reported. To an
inadequate extent, Dillard wrote about the relationship between Black English and
the White cultural “Standard”. Despite some shortcomings, his examination of
pronoun gender in Creoles and the Gullah language enabled me to revisit the power
of non-standard varieties.
Dillard scolds other academics in their search to connect non-standard
varieties with the old world and “primitive” languages that preceded them. In doing
so, he attempts to distance himself from such shortsightedness. The tone strikes me
as self-congratulatory.
It may be disappointing to seekers after the exotic to discover that the
differences between the grammar of Standard English and that of Negro NonStandard are primarily of this order. We will see no picture of the Congo creeping
through the grammatical system, face painted and spear in hand, but, at each point,
only seemingly minor differences, which become increasingly greater as we
consider their systemic implications and their cumulative effect. It is because of the
lack of these exotic, striking, individual grammatical differences that teachers,
laymen, and dialect geographers -- all of them inclined to treat language a word at a
time—have failed to see the great difference (1972, Dillard, p.56).
Dillard proclaims that “the great difference” is that Black English has adopted
aspects of grammatical structures from Pidgin English (1972, Dillard, p.59), rather
than utilizing grammatical structures from African languages as some researchers
and exotic seekers eagerly seek.
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The voice of condescension in Dillard’s scolding suggests that he himself does
not fall prey to the colonial Rudyard Kipling esthetic. Unfortunately, several aspects
of his work indicate that he has not reflected on his own sociocultural lens in
relationship with his informants. He uses many words that have been
problematized in sociological studies of linguistic minorities. There are several
occasions that Dillard refers to his informants as “Negros” (1972, Dillard, p. 50, p.
54, p. 55). I found this particularly troubling when he used “Negro” to refer to one of
his students (p.54). He uses the word “ghetto” when describing children’s
utterances which provides the effect of nails on a chalkboard:
Much more important work still remains to be done on the clause
structures of Black English. One of the things which the observer of ghetto
speech soon learns is that, while the children say things in the order of
Can he go?
They also form questions like
Why she ain’ over here?
The first question, superficially identical to Standard English, would be
incorporated into a subordinate clause in quite a different fashion:
I don’t know can he go.
That sentence is virtually an exact equivalent of Standard English. (1972,
Dillard, p.63).
Following this, Dillard explains that in studies where children who speak
Black English are offered a model that includes the Standard “if” clause, the student
eventually corrects their “error”. Children who speak Standard English are offered a
model that includes the Black English phrase without the “if” and the Standard
English speakers maintain their own phrasing (1972, Dillard, p.63). This strikes me
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as an opportune moment to highlight the metalinguistic awareness of the Black
English speakers in relationship to a cultural “Standard”. The hierarchy is apparent
to those children who correct when provided with a Standard English prompt.
Dillard fails to address the relationship of Black English with the cultural “Standard”
explicitly.
Dillard does note that the Gullah language and some Afro-American varieties
do not differentiate in the masculine and feminine pronouns (1972, Dillard, p.56).
When I read this, it reminded me of my first exposure to Gullah language:
“Your mama just like the sweet soil I plant my beans and okra in. Every time
I hear about her she be bringin another child into this world. How many dat
now?
“Three…”
“Lord, her aint hardly had time to bring in a crop tween children! How she be
getting’ on?”
“Her real tired. Dr. Boyd say her need she rest.”
“I say You tell your mama leave dat doctor lone an come see Miz Emma Julia!
I give she somptin what let dat body rest. Dem buckra doctors don’t take no
care with we!”
“Yes, maam” (1997, Dash, p. 8)
This is an excerpt from Daughters of the Dust, which describes women living
in the Gullah community in South Carolina. I read the novel as a teenager and it
awakened some ecofeminist persuasion in me I could not articulate at the time. I
found that the women characters in this book used language in a way that was at
one time affectionate, at other times gritty, but also wise and oppositional to the
dominant social paradigm. In the conversation above, an older woman, Emma Julia,
is asserting herself as a natural healer in a community where western doctors have
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cared for women in the birthing process. Reading this book uncovered for me the
conviction that women should have control over their bodies. Reading Dillard’s
work on the structures of Black English reminded me that Dash’s writing on the
Gullah community showcases power in Gullah language. Dash shows how linguistic
minorities can use language to assert their identity despite the insipidness of the
cultural “Standard”.
Dillard notes: “Not all informants are so cooperative, probably because of the
painful experience in having their language habits labeled “inferior”. Forty years
later, I suspect that Dillard might choose different words to describe the experience
of linguistic minorities. I expect he would also reveal more information about his
own identity. Locating himself as an individual in a sociocultural context, rather
than assuming a cultural and linguistic American “Standard”, would infuse some
honesty and transparency in the process of representing Black English structure.
References
Dash, J. (1997). Daughters of the dust. Dutton. New York.
Dillard, J.L. (1972). On the structure of black english. Black English. Vintage.