AAVE as a class-marker in American film.

Abstract

This research looks at the representation of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in American films released after the year 2000. AAVE is a dialectic variety of American English, as it contains phonetical and grammatical differences compared to the standard. The research question ‘’to what extend does a high prevalence of grammatical features associated with African American Vernacular English (AAVE) correlate with the representation of positive (high social class) or negative (low social class) African American characters in American films after the year 2000?’’ puts a particular focus on social stratification and representation of African Americans speaking AAVE in American film. In order to do so, the four movies Crash (2004), Coach Carter (2005), Freedom Writers (2007), and The Blind Side (2009) were selected. Speech samples from these movies were then transcribed according to the occurrences of grammatical features of AAVE across positive and negative African American characters. Results from the analyses of the four American movies reveal that a high prevalence of grammatical features associated with AAVE correlates with the representation of negative (low social class) African American characters across the four American movies. Welk onderdeel van je SVO is niet in orde?