GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH (AAVE) IN “STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON” MOVIE A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Sarjana Humaniora in English and Literature Department of the Faculty of Adab and Humanities of UIN Alauddin Makassar By NUR ARIFIN Reg. No. 40300111089 ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT FACULTY OF ADAB AND HUMANITIES ALAUDDIN STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR 2017 i 2 3 4 5 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENT Alhamdulillahirabbil’alamin, all the praises be to Allah, lord of the universe for his bestowals, grant, love, and guidance. Shalawat and salaam may always be granted to our prophet Muhammad SAW, for his role in Islam and humanity. Genuinely, the writer would like to express his deepest gratitude to the following: 1. The rector of Islamic States University of Alauddin Makassar, Prof. Dr. Musafir Pabbabari, M.Si, dean of Adab and Humanities Faculty Dr. H. Barsihannor, M.Ag, vice deans of Adab and Humanities Faculty Dr. Abd Rahman. R, M.Ag, Dr. Hj. Syamzan Syukur, M.Ag, and Dr. Abd.Muin, M. Hum. and also all the staffs for their advices and helps during since the first time the writer enrolled as a new student until today. 2. The beloved parents: Abdul Hamid and Kholifah; Brothers: Oki Sofwan Hadi, Didik Al-Amin and Naim Voska Wijaya, all family members at Baburoyyan- Batua for their prayer, love, and support. 3. To the head and secretary of English and Literature Department, Muh. Nur Akbar Rasyid, M.Pd., M.Ed., Ph.D and Syahruni Junaid, S.S., M.Pd for their suggestions, helps and supports administratively. 4. The writer’s greatest appreciation goes to the supervisors, Dr. Abd. Muin. M.Hum. and Faidah Yusuf, S.S., M.Pd. for their guidance, supports, helps, and advices and for giving their precious time during the process of the writer’s research completion. vi 7 5. Furthermore, the writer would like to send his biggest thanks to the examiners, Syahruni Junaid, S.S., M.Pd. and Muhammad Taufik S.S., M.Hum. for their corrections, guidance, supports, suggestion and advices. 6. For all lecturers and the staffs of Adab and Humanities Faculty UIN Alauddin Makassar who have contributed a lot in fulfilling the writer’s thesis preparation and administrative support. 7. To Ajun Komisaris Polisi H. Juhadi Basuwono, S.H. and families, H. Sholichin and families, and The Director and owner of EISBC, Umar Diwarman Eisenring, ST., MSP.,. 8. For all my friends, English and Literature Department 2011, Niggaz Corporation, EisBC Teamwork, Vernacular English course and Cowboy café, Remaja masjid Baburoyyan Batua and Arroyyan FC. Also my colleagues: Nurmuttaqin, S.Hum., Marwan Edi Saputra, S.Hum., Amrullah Nur Hidayat, S.Hum., Muhammad Muflih Mappaujung, S. Hum., Riswandy, Muhammad Richsan VE, Azrul Amin, S.E., Jaynuddin, S.E., Kurniadi, and those whose names are not mentioned here. 9. The writer also pays salutation to Pengprov PERSINAS Sulawesi Selatan and FDMI for their trust and cooperation. 10. And also to those who may read this thesis, the writer hopes that it can be a valuable reference. Samata, January 17Th, 2017 The Writer, Nur Arifin vii 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE i PERNYATAAN KEASLIAN SKRIPSI ii PENGESAHAN SKRIPSI iii PERSETUJUAN PEMBIMBING iv APPROVAL SHEET v ACKNOWLEGMENTS vi TABLE OF CONTENTS viii ABSTRACT xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. BACKGROUND 1 B. PROBLEM STATEMENT 4 C. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH 5 D. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH 5 E. SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH 5 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE A. PREVIOUS STUDY 7 B. AAVE 9 1. The Definition of AAVE 9 2. The Origin of AAVE 10 3. Grammatical Features of AAVE 12 a. Negation 12 viii 9 b. Non-standard Question Formation 12 c. Verb Phrase 13 1) The Generalization of Is and Was 13 2) Copula or Auxiliary Absence 13 3) Invariant be 13 4) Completive done 13 5) Remote been 14 6) Simple past had + Preterit 14 d. Nouns and Pronouns 14 e. Special Auxiliary steady and come 14 f. Nominal 15 C. STANDARD ENGLISH 15 1. The Definition of Standard English 15 2. Grammar of Standard English 16 a. Agreement Rules 16 b. The Verb Be 16 c. Negative 18 D. STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON 21 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A. RESEARCH METHOD 23 B. DATA SOURCES 23 C. INSTRUMENT OF THE RESEARCH 23 ix 10 D. PROCEDURE OF DATA COLLECTION 24 E. DATA ANALYSIS 24 CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS A. FINDINGS 26 B. DISCUSSIONS 30 CHAPTER V CONCLUSSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A. CONCLUSSIONS 43 B. SUGGESTIONS 44 BIBLIOGRAPHY 45 BIOGRAPHY 45 x 11 ABSTRACT Name : Nur Arifin Reg. Number : 40300111089 Major : English Literature Department Faculty : Adab and Humanity Faculty Title : The Grammatical Analysis of AAVE in “Straight Outta Compton” Movie Supervisor I : Abd. Muin Supervisor II : Faidah Yusuf This research aimed to analyze the use of the selected African American Vernacular English (AAVE) features in in “Straight Outta Compton” movie which includes the use of negator ain’t, negative concord, auxiliary absence, generalization of is and was to plural and second person pronouns, remote been, completive done, possessive pronoun they, and demonstrative them. The research focused on Howe and Wolfram theories about AAVE which compared the findings to the Standard English form. Then, the data were analyzed using descriptive qualitative method. The writer used note taking as the instrument to find out the valid data. The results of the research defined the use of negator ain’t as in “I ain’t no rapper” for “I am not a rapper” in SE. This function shows the alternation of copulative verb be+not with ain’t and as negators to stress the negative meaning of the sentence. The movie also uses the AAVE verb phrase feature remote been such as “I been workin” for “I have been working” in SE. The movie also shows the use of auxiliary was for pronoun you and we as in “You was throwing up” for “You were throwing up in SE. Copula or auxiliary deletion in interrogative sentence, such as in “What you want?” for “What do you want?” in SE. The use of completive done as the alternation of completive auxiliary have as in “He done made” for “He has made” in SE. The use of subjective pronoun they as a possessive pronoun and the use of objective pronoun them as an adjective demonstrative for countable nouns as in “I got them rhymes” for “I got those rhymes” in SE. The writer concluded that this variety of English was totally used in the movie as the representation of AAVE speakers and they may use the grammatical features of AAVE different from Standard English grammatical rules. Keywords: Sociolinguistics, AAVE, Standard English, Grammatical Features. xi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background Language takes an important role in a wide variety of human situation. It is used by the human being as a media to communicate or interact between one and another. And it becomes a social phenomenon that it is not only the matter of the existence of the language but also who uses the language. Fasold defines the functions of using language as follows: When people use language, they do more than just to get another person to understand the speaker’s thought and feelings. At the same time, both people are using language in subtle ways to define their relationship to each other, to identify themselves as part of a social group, and to establish the kind of speech event they are in. (Fasold, 1990:1). McIntosh in Mclagan (2005:15) states that language variations are divided into two categories, variation according to the user and according to the use. Variation according to the user contains aspect of language which reveals the speaker’s place, origin, gender, age, social class, ethnicity, education. Variation according to the use is concerned about the change of speech situation or event. The relation between language and ethnicity is on one of the great discussion among linguists. According to the citation above, it shows that language has a functional relation with societies. Gumperz (1971:223) has observed that an attempt to find correlations between social structure and linguistic structure and to observe any changes that occur is called sociolinguistics. Chambers in Wardhaugh (2006:11) also defines that sociolinguistics is the study of the social uses of language. 1 2 The study of language variation is an important part of sociolinguistics, to the extent that it requires reference to social factors. Languages vary from one place to another, from one social group to another, and from one situation to another. A certain society speaks their own language at least they have own certain characteristic in using the language. Sociolinguistics concerns the way how the functions of languages in societies build a social interaction and also how a society members communicate using the language differ from others (Wardhaugh, 2006:135). More specifically, Stewart et al. (2001:318) note that there are some English varieties that are related to ethnic groups such as Italian English, Jewish English, Irish English, German English, Puerto Rican English, Chicano English, American Indian English, Vietnamese English and African American English or African American Vernacular English (AAVE). AAVE is contemporarily popular discussion among linguists, hence the writer took part in discussion this English variety. African American Vernacular English (AAVE) has been labeled in some terms such as Negro dialect, Nonstandard Negro English, Negro English, American Negro speech, Black communications, Black dialect, Black folk speech, Black street speech, Black English, Black English Vernacular (BEV), Black Vernacular English (BVE), Afro American English (AAE), African American English (AAE), African American Language, and African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as in Green (2002:6).