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THE USE OF AFRICAN AMERICAN
VERNACULAR ENGLISH IN LANGSTON
HUGHES’
“THE BEST OF SIMPLE”: A DIALECT
ANALYSIS

Background of the study
Dialect use as a complex phenomenon has been the
interest of many scholars, especially dialectologists
...
It is of crucial importance to mention that there is a
wide range of different varieties related to nonstandard English,
as African American English Vernacular, (AAVE) which is often
used in American literary works
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Besides, it
has contributed to the outstanding success of American literary
works (Iles and Belmekki, 2020)
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Semple (aka Simple”) in 1943, through a series of
stories that appeared in a column he wrote for the Chicago
Defender
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African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), known to a
lesser extent as Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular,
Black Vernacular English or vulgar Ebonics, is the diverse of
English that is domestically verbalized particularly in urban
communities by most working, and middle-class African
American and some Black Canadians
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What are the dialectal representations of AAVE found in the
selected stories in the anthology ‘The Best of Simple’?
Cultural elements;
Double Negation;
Contractions; and
Dialectal words?
2
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What picture of African American life of the times is portrayed in
the selections in the “The Best of Simple” based on the dialect
analysis?

Theoretical Framework
Dialectology
Dialectology is the study of how sounds, words and
grammatical forms vary from one dialect to the other within a
single language
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It is generally associated with the
peasantry, the working class, or other groups lacking in prestige,
and often it has no written form
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On the other hand, the standard language is a
form of communication, which is more prestigious than dialect
(Chambers and Trudgill, 1998)
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B
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The schematic diagram of the Conceptual Framework

Scope and Limitations of the Study
The study aims to explore the use of African American
Vernacular English in the anthology ‘The Best of Simple’
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The study will be limited only to five (5) selections extracted
from “The Best of Simple”, namely, ‘A Toast to Harlem’, ‘Wooing
the Muse’, ‘Banquet in Honor’, ‘There Ought to be a Law’ and
‘Bop’
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Methods of Data Gathering and Data Analysis
of the study
The selections will undergo an in-depth reading, in order
to find extracts appropriate to be material for analysis
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Specifically, dialectal representations
in terms of cultural elements, contractions, and double
negations, as well as grammatical representations found in the
texts will be analyzed
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Sample Analysis
Cultural elements in the novel
Poems
Superstition
Sayings
Table 1 highlights the main cultural elements used in Langston Hughes’ anthology, which summarizes the
character’s folkloric beliefs and traditions
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Therefore, it is essential to mention that the entire book of the Langston is
full of contractions since it is written in a non-standard form of language

Double negation

Standard form

Page number

I wouldn’t move no
depression

I would not be depressed

20

Don’t nobody push me off

Anyone cannot push me off

20

I ain’t said a word

I did not say any word

45

I don’t want no damned
banquet

I do not want any banquet

46

Table 3 shows that other dialectal utterances reveal the double negation which is regarded as a feature
of a non-standard language
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