Linguist 391BH-1S: Oral Styles and Discourse Modes in African American English
LINGUIST 391BH-1S: ORAL STYLES AND DISCOURSE MODES IN AAE
Course Number: 47938
MWF 11:15-12:05
132 Morrill II
FALL 2007
Instructor’s Information:
Prof. Lisa Green
Office: 310 South College
Phone: 577-0937
Email: lgreen@linguist.umass.edu
Office hours: M 2:30-4:00, W 9:00-10:30
Instructor’s Note:
One of my goals is to foster an intellectual environment, and I will make every effort to
provide a course that will contribute to your academic skills and general education.
Please ask questions as soon as you have them; they will help me clarify points in
lectures and assignments. If you need special accommodations due to a physical,
psychological, or learning disability, please let me know as soon as possible.
Course Overview:
Ex-slave narratives, which were collected as part of the Federal Writers’ Project, have
been used as resources for linguistic patterns in studies about the historical origin of
African American English (AAE), a linguistic system used by some African Americans
in the US, but prison work songs, which were collected from ‘leased’ convicts and prison
inmates in the southern US, have not been discussed in linguistic analyses of AAE. This
course investigates properties and the structure of discourse by considering discourse
modes (e.g., narrative, report, description, argument, and information) that were used to
develop ex-slave narratives and prison work songs. Strategies that early AAE speakers
used to move narratives along and the type of information that is conveyed by the
linguistic units and sequences of sentences in these early to mid 20th century oral texts
will be considered. In addition this course investigates time markers that speakers used to
talk about events in the distant past and the role they play in the temporal interpretation of
these texts. We will raise questions about the extent to which basic syntactic and
semantic tools can also be extended to sermons and other types of oral discourse in the
AAE-speaking community. In this honors course, students will complete basic linguistic
description of oral and written text. In addition they will design and carry out a research
project in which they will use the George P. Rawick volumes and Library of Congress
narratives as primary data sources.
Required Reading:
The following chapters and articles are available on the course website:
http://courses.umass.edu/bh391/.
Bailey, Guy, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila. 1991. Harriet Smith. In Guy
Bailey, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila (eds.) The Emergence of Black
English: Text and Commentary, 61-78. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.
Bailey, Guy, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila. 1991. Introduction. In Guy
Bailey, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila (eds.) The Emergence of Black
English: Text and Commentary, 1-20. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.
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Linguist 391BH-1S: Oral Styles and Discourse Modes in African American English
Bailey, Guy, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila. 1991. Laura Smalley. In Guy
Bailey, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila (eds.) The Emergence of Black
English: Text and Commentary, 79-98. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing
Company.
Blassingame, John W. 1977. Introduction. In John W. Blassingame Slave Testimony: Two
Centuries of Letters, Speeches, Interviews, and Autobiographies, xvii-lxv. Baton
Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Green, Lisa. 2004. African American English. In Edward Finegan and John R. Rickford
(eds.) Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-first Century, 76-91.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jackson, Bruce. 1999. Axe Songs: Crosscutting. In Bruce Jackson Wake Up Dead
Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues, 194-211. Athens: The University Press.
Jackson, Bruce. 1999. “One Lost Valley”: The Singers on Their Songs. In Bruce Jackson
Wake Up Dead Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues, 1-27. Athens: The
University Press.
Jackson, Bruce. 1999. The Texas Worksong Tradition. In Bruce Jackson Wake Up Dead
Man: Hard Labor and Southern Blues, 29-44. Athens: The University Press.
Kautzsch, Alexander. 2002. Data and Methods. In Alexander Kautzsch The
Historical Evolution of Earlier African American English: An Empirical
Comparison of Early Sources, 12-39. New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Labov, William and Joshua Waletzky.1967. Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of
Personal Experience. In June Helm (ed.) Essays on the Verbal and Visual Arts:
Proceedings of the 1966 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological
Society, 12-44. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Lomax, Alan. 1993. Rise Up, Dead Man. In Alan Lomax The Land Where the Blues
Began, 256-313. New York: The New York Press.
Oshinsky, David M. 1996. Emancipation. In David M. Oshinsky Worse Than Slavery:
Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice, 11-29. New York: Free
Press Paperbacks.
Oshinsky, David M. 1996. The Mississippi Plan. In David M. Oshinsky Worse Than
Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice, 31-53. New York:
Free Press Paperbacks.
Perdue, Jr., Charles L., Thomas E. Barden, and Robert K. Phillips. 1976. Mrs. Fannie
Berry. In Charles L. Perdue, Jr., Thomas E. Barden, and Robert K. Phillips (eds.)
Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-slaves, 30-50. Charlottesville:
University of Virginia Press.
Rawick, George P. 1972. Appendixes. In George P. Rawick From Sundown to Sunup:
The Making of the Black Community, 163-178. Westport, CT: Greenwood
Publishing Company.
Rickford, John R. 1991. Representativeness and Reliability of the Ex-Slave Narrative
Materials, With Special Reference to Wallace Quarterman’s Recording and
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Linguist 391BH-1S: Oral Styles and Discourse Modes in African American English
Transcript. In Guy Bailey, Natalie Maynor, and Patricia Cukor-Avila (eds.) The
Emergence of Black English: Text and Commentary, 191-212. Philadelphia: John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
Taylor, William Banks. 1999. The Mississippi System. In William Banks Taylor Down
on Parchman Farm: The Great Prison in the Mississippi Delta, 46-69. Columbus:
Ohio State University Press.
Recordings:
Information about accessing required recordings for the course will be given in class.
Course goal:
The goal of the course is to provide a foundation that will help students:
1) identify discourse strategies used to develop ex-slave narratives and prison work
songs.
2) evaluate arguments about the origin of language used by African Americans that are
based on ex-slave narratives.
3) conduct basic linguistic analysis on excerpts from ex-slave recordings and prison
work songs.
4) conduct basic discourse analysis on excerpts from ex-slave recordings and narratives.
Class format and attendance:
The format of the course will be a combination of lecture and discussion. In some cases,
the readings will provide a general overview of the topic of discussion, and, in others,
they will supplement lectures and serve as background information. The readings will
also serve as a springboard into lectures and discussion about ex-slave narratives and
prison work songs. The readings may support points with which I will disagree. I will
address questions about assigned reading; however, I will not merely explain the reading
material during lectures. Bring assigned readings to class because they will be used as
references during discussion.
The course lectures and discussions will involve a significant amount of data that will not
be in the assigned readings; therefore, regular attendance is necessary for successful
completion of the class. You are expected to arrive on time and remain in class for the
entire period. You should inform me if you have to arrive late or leave early during a
particular class. In the event that you have to miss class, you should arrange to borrow
class notes from fellow students. Excessive absences will be reflected in your course
grade.
Requirements:
The grade for the course will be based on homework assignments, a writing
assignment/presentation, and two in-class exams. Specific guidelines will be given for
each assignment. The homework assignments must be typed or neatly written, and they
must reflect YOUR OWN careful consideration of the problems. The writing assignment
must be typed. All work must be submitted by the due date.
1) Homework assignments (40%)
For the homework assignments, you will be required to perform linguistic analysis of
language patterns in ex-slave narratives and prison work songs. The assignments must
be typed or neatly written, and they must reflect careful consideration of the
problems. All assignments must be submitted by the due date. If you need more time
to complete an assignment, you must let me know before the due date. In such a case,
the assignment must be turned in by the next class period. Exceptions will be made
for late assignments in the event of serious illness or family emergencies.
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Linguist 391BH-1S: Oral Styles and Discourse Modes in African American English
2) Writing assignment/Presentation (20%)
There will be a writing assignment in which you will be required to complete a
comparative analysis of two versions of an ex-slave narrative. The results of the
analysis will be presented in class.
3) Exams (40%)
There will be two in-class exams (Exam 1 = 20%, Exam 2 = 20%). The second exam
will pay particular attention to the material covered during the second half of the
semester. However, because we will build on concepts introduced early during the
semester, you must have a handle on the material covered during the entire semester.
Grading scale
100
A+
99-92
A
91-89
A88-87
B+
86-82
B
81-79
B78-77
C+
76-72
C
71-79
C68-67
D+
66-62
D
61-59
D58-0
F
Homework
40
A+
39-37
A
36
A35
B+
34-33
B
32
B31
C+
30-29
C
28
C27
D+
26-25
D
24
D23-0
F
Writing Assignment/Presentation, Exams
60
A+
59-55 A
54
A53-52 B+
51-49 B
48
B47-46 C+
45-43 C
42
C41-40 D+
39-37 D
36
D35-0
F
Course Policy on Academic Dishonesty:
You should become familiar with the University of Massachusetts policy concerning
academic dishonesty (if you have not already read the information), which includes a
statement about plagiarism:
http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/code_conduct/acad_honest.htm
For this course, plagiarism, copying someone else’s homework, assignments, short
papers, and exams, and allowing others to copy your work are considered academic
dishonesty, for which appropriate action will be taken. In brief, plagiarism refers to
passing off someone else’s work as your own. If you use an author’s work, you must cite
it properly, either by signaling direct quotes with quotation marks or by using internal
documentation (e.g., Mabry 2006). Specific guidelines for referring to another person’s
work will be given along with the homework assignments.
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Linguist 391BH-1S: Oral Styles and Discourse Modes in African American English
Course Schedule
I will distribute a revised course schedule if the timeline has to be adjusted significantly.
Class Session #
Date
Topic, reading assignments, homework assignments,
exams
UNIT 1: EX-SLAVE NARRATIVES
1
Sept. 5 W Introduction and overview of course: What can exslave narratives and prison work songs tell us about
language?
INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH
(AAE)
2
Sept. 7 F
Overview of AAE
Reading assignment: Green pp. 76-91
3
Sept. 10 M General Patterns in AAE handout
4
Sept. 12 W General Patterns in AAE handout
EX-SLAVE NARRATIVES, FEDERAL WRITERS’ PROJECT
5
Sept. 14 F
Works Progress Administration and Federal
Writers’ Project handout
6
Sept. 17 M Introduction to ex-slave narratives
Reading assignment: Blassingame pp. xvii-lxv
7
Sept. 19 W Narrative and Discourse Structure:
Reading assignment: Labov and Waletzky pp. 12-44
8
Sept. 21 F
Narrative and Discourse Structure:
Reading assignment: handout
9
Sept. 24 M Federal Writers’ Progress: Method of data collection
Reading assignment: Reading assignment: Perdue,
Barden, and Phillips pp. xi-xlv
10
Sept. 26 W Federal Writers’ Project: Method of data collection
Rawick pp. 163-178
11
Sept. 28 F
Method of data collection and analysis
Reading assignment: Bailey, Maynor, and Cukor-Avila
pp. 1-19
12
Oct. 1 M
Method of data collection and analysis
Reading assignment: Kautzsch pp. 12-39
13
Oct. 3 W
Method of data collection and analysis handout
14
Oct. 5 F
Texts and Recordings: Virginia narratives
Reading assignment: Perdue, Barden, and Phillips
pp. 30-50
Columbus Day Oct. 8 M
No class
15
Oct. 9 Tues Texts and Recordings: Virginia narratives
(Monday
Schedule)
16
Oct. 10 W
Texts and Recordings: Texas Narratives
Reading assignment: Bailey et al. pp. 61-78
17
Oct. 12 F
Texts and Recordings: Texas Narratives
Reading assignment: Bailey et al. pp. 61-78
18
Oct. 15 M
Texts and Recordings: Texas Narratives
Reading assignment: Bailey et al. pp. 61-78
19
Oct. 17 W
Texts and Recordings: Texas Narratives
Reading assignment: Bailey et al. pp. 79-98
20
Oct. 19 F
Texts and Recordings: Texas Narratives
Reading assignment: Bailey et al. pp. 79-98
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Linguist 391BH-1S: Oral Styles and Discourse Modes in African American English
21
22
23
24
25
Oct. 22 M
Oct. 24 W
Oct. 26 F
Oct. 29 M
Oct. 31 W
26
Nov. 2 F
27
Nov. 5 M
28
Nov. 7 W
29
Nov. 9 F
Veterans Day
30
31
Nov. 12 M
Nov. 14 W
(Monday
Schedule)
Nov. 16 F
32
Nov. 19 M
33
Nov. 21 W
Thanksgiving
34
Nov. 23 F
Nov. 26 M
35
Nov. 28 W
36
Nov. 30 F
37
38
39
Dec. 3 M
Dec. 5 W
Dec. 7 F
40
Dec. 10 M
41
42
Dec. 12 W
Dec. 14 F
Texts and Recordings: Presentations
Exam 1
Texts and Recordings: Presentations
Texts and Recordings: Presentations
Origins Debate: Ex-slave Narratives and the Origins
Debate—Creole View
Reading assignment: Rickford pp. 192-212
Origins Debate: Ex-slave Narratives and the Origins
Debate—English Origin (Anglicist) View
handout
UNIT 2: PRISON WORK SONGS
BEGINNING OF WORK SONGS
Setting The Stage For Work Songs: The Work Farm
System
Reading assignment: Oshinsky pp. 11-29
Setting The Stage For Work Songs: The Work Farm
System
Reading assignment: Oshinsky pp. 31-53
Setting The Stage For Work Songs: The Work Farm
System
Reading assignment: Taylor pp. 46-69
No Class
Setting The Stage For Work Songs: The Work Farm
System
handout
The Work Song Tradition
Reading assignment: Lomax pp. 256-313
The Work Song Tradition
Reading assignment: Jackson pp. 1-27
The Work Song Tradition
Reading assignment: Jackson pp. 194-211
No Class
Texas Prison Work Songs: The Texas Tradition
handout
Texas Prison Work Songs: The Texas Tradition
Jackson pp. 29-44
Texas Prison Work Songs: The Texas Tradition
handout
Linguistic Analysis of Work Songs
Linguistic Analysis of Work Songs
Work Songs and Sermons: Linguistic Analysis of
Work Songs
Work Songs and Sermons: Linguistic Analysis of
Work Songs
Oral Discourse: Putting the Pieces Together
Exam 2
6