Language Variation and Music African American English as a Lyrical Strategy in the Blues Word count: 22,317 Romeo De Timmerman Student number: 01507549 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Stef Slembrouck A dissertation submitted to Ghent University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literature: language combination English - Dutch Academic year: 2019 - 2020 [PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK] I hereby grant Ghent University my written consent and permission to release and/or use this master’s dissertation as part of the university's internal self-evaluation and/or assessment procedures, internal efforts to improve teaching and learning effectiveness, or to recognize student achievement. Romeo De Timmerman, August 2020 [PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK] Abstract Traditionally, language variation was considered to be governed primarily by geographical location, ethnicity and socio-economic status (Bailey & Bassett, 1986; Fasold, 1981; Labov, 1966, 1972). Over the last few decades, however, sociolinguists have started to deviate from this consensus, e.g. by examining the use of African American English [AAE] by non-African Americans (Bucholtz, 2010; Chun, 2001; Cutler, 1999, 2015; Fix, 2014; Reyes, 2005). Additionally, recent sociological and psychological research has shown that music preference plays an instrumental role in shaping the personality of individuals and their judgement of others (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2007; Halliday, 2019; Marshall & Naumann, 2018; Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003; Vella & Mills, 2016). To date, few scholars have attempted to combine these findings to consider the potential influence music has on language use. Consequently, the present study aims to provide support for the consideration of music as a factor governing language variation by comparing the lyrical language use of blues artists with a variety of socio-cultural backgrounds. A corpus analysis is the language empirical focus of this project. Sixteen artists were selected based on accessibility of their live performed music, and were consequently categorized in four equally distributed groups: 1960s African American [AA], 2010s AA, 2010s non-African American [non-AA], and 2010s non-AA with English as a Foreign Language [EFL]. A corpus of 80 live performed songs, five for each artist, was composed, and five phonological features of AAE were selected as variables using relevant literature. A dataset containing the variant use of the selected variables and extralinguistic parameters, was created and analyzed using mixed effects logistic regression. Additionally, two contemporary artists were interviewed to provide more qualitative contextualization regarding the social concerns that might inform artists’ lyrical language use. This project attempts to combine insights from variation studies, sociological concepts like performance and performativity, and the discourse surrounding cultural appropriation to add to the theoretical and practical knowledge of their respective fields and provide an argument for the consideration of music as a factor governing language variation. De Timmerman i Acknowledgements During the research and writing process of this study, I received aid and support from a number of people. Consequently, I would like to use this section to extend my gratitude towards these individuals. First, I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude towards my supervisor Prof. Dr. Stef Slembrouck for allowing me to pursue this niche research project. Thank you for valuing my ideas and guiding me along the way. Second, I want to thank Prof. Dr. Ludovic De Cuypere for assisting me in the annotation and analysis of my quantitative data, and for his insightful and engaging classes on statistical methods in linguistic research. Third, I wish to thank Alexander De Soete, Thijs Gillioen and Dr. Sarah Haas for their advice and guidance throughout the last few years. You have taught me a great deal about research and writing, and have motivated me to pursue my interests on many occasions. For that, I am very grateful. Next, my gratitude goes out to the many blues artists whose lyrics I used as data for this study, and to Josh Smith and Matt Schofield in particular, for their cooperation in this project and invaluable insights regarding the blues. Thank you for fueling both my musical and academic interests. Fifth, many thanks go out to Jasper Temmerman for his time and efforts in proofreading many iterations of this project. Last, I would like to thank my parents and some of the people closest to me, namely Anne-Sophie Bafort, Yasmin Crombez, Jaro De Smet and Jente Goddemaer, for their relentless support throughout the years. De Timmerman ii Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. ii Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... iii List of Tables ........................................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................................. x 1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 1 2 Literature .......................................................................................................................................... 3 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3 2.2 Language Variation and Music ................................................................................................ 3 2.3 Performance of Music and Identity ......................................................................................... 5 2.4 Cultural Appropriation and the Blues ...................................................................................... 8 2.5 African American English ....................................................................................................... 11 3 Research Objectives ....................................................................................................................... 14 4 Methodology .................................................................................................................................. 15 4.1 Quantitative ........................................................................................................................... 15 4.1.1 Data Selection ............................................................................................................... 15 4.1.2 Data Transcription ........................................................................................................ 19 4.1.3 Data Annotation ........................................................................................................... 19 4.2 Qualitative ............................................................................................................................. 23 4.2.1 Data Selection ............................................................................................................... 23 4.2.2 Data Transcription ........................................................................................................ 26 4.2.3 Data Annotation ........................................................................................................... 26 De Timmerman iii 5 Results ............................................................................................................................................ 28 5.1 Quantitative ........................................................................................................................... 28 5.1.1 Random Effects ............................................................................................................. 29 5.1.1.1 B.B. King (AA, 60s) .................................................................................................... 30 5.1.1.2 Albert King (AA, 60s) ................................................................................................ 31 5.1.1.3 Muddy Waters (AA, 60s) .......................................................................................... 31 5.1.1.4 Buddy Guy (AA, 60s) ................................................................................................ 32 5.1.1.5 Josh Smith (non-AA, 10s) ......................................................................................... 33 5.1.1.6 Matt Schofield (non-AA, 10s) ................................................................................... 34 5.1.1.7 Philip Sayce (non-AA, 10s) ....................................................................................... 35 5.1.1.8 Robben Ford (AA, 10s) ............................................................................................. 35 5.1.1.9 Kirk Fletcher (AA, 10s) .............................................................................................