Gunnel Tottie|Michel Rey
Relativization strategies in Earlier African American Vernacular English
University of Zurich|University of Zurich
abstract article examines system relative markers early african american english documented exslave recordings bailey et al 1991 intended contribution two areas research african american vernacular english system relativization english found significantly higher incidence zero marking adverbial relatives nonadverbial relatives among nonadverbial relatives variable rule analysis showed nonhumanness head well function head subject complement subject existential sentence strongly favored zero relatives prepositional complement heads disfavored zeroes lack whrelatives aswell frequency zero subject relatives interpreted evidence african american vernacular english dialect english