Language in the Inner City firmly establishes African American Vernacular English not simply as slang but as a well-formed set of rules of pronunciation and grammar capable of conveying complex logic and reasoning and confirms the Black vernacular as a separate and independent dialect of English.

Language in the Inner City
Studies in the Black English Vernacular

William Labov

1973 | 440 pages | Cloth $30.00 | Paper $24.95
Philology and Linguistics | African-American/African Studies
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Table of Contents

Figures
Tables
Introduction

PART I- THE STRUCTURE OF THE BLACK ENGLISH VERNACULAR
1- Some Sources of Reading Problems for Speakers of the Black English Vernacular
2- Is the Black English Vernacular a Separate System?
3- Contraction, Deletion, and Inherent Variability of the English Copula
4- Negative Attraction and Negative Concord

PART II- THE VERNACULAR IN ITS SOCIAL SETTING
5- The Logic of Nonstandard English
6- The Relation of Reading Failure to Peer-group Status
7- The Linguistic Consequences of Being a Lame

PART III THE USES OF THE BLACK ENGLISH VERNACULAR
8- Rules for Ritual Insults
9- The Transformation of Experience in Narrative Syntax

Bibliography
Index