242 CHAPTER 7
ently, to be founded on a disturbingly racist point of view: There is the undeni-
able—and unacceptable—hint that students who speak Black English are
incapable of mastering Standard English.
Adopting an additive stance with respect to dialects eliminates many of the
difficulties associated with BEV and instruction. The mastery and use of Stan-
dard English complements the home dialect, whatever it may be. An additive
stance also calls for legitimizing and valuing all dialects while simultaneously
recognizing the appropriateness conditions that govern language use in
specific situations.
Black English Grammar
Black English grammar differs from Standard English grammar in several
ways. For example, it normally omits thessuffix on present-tense verbs (He
talk pretty fast), except in those instances where the speaker overcorrects in an
effort to approximate standard patterns (I goes to work). It drops thegfrom par-
ticiples (He goin’ now), and it also uses four separate negators:dit’n, not, don’
andain’.Consider the following sentences:
- Fred dit’n come yesterday.
- Macarena not comin’.
- Fritz don’ eat them pies.
- Fritz don’ be goin’ the store.
- Macarena ain’ eat.
- She don’ be eatin’.
Agreement. In Standard English, verbs agree in number with their sub-
jects in the present tense. In BEV, they usually do not. We therefore observe the
following differences:
- I love you, Macarena. (standard)
- I loves you, Macarena (black)
Aspect. One of the more significant differences between Standard Eng-
lish and Black English is that the two dialects treat tense and aspect differently.
On page 71, we examined aspect as a feature of the English verb form, looking
specifically at progressive and perfect forms. At that point, we considered the
fact that Standard English marks verb tenses as past or present and that it pro-
vides the option of indicating the static or ongoing nature of an action (aspect)
through the use of these two verb forms. Black English, in contrast, allows for