Findings and Discussion

Informal Versus Formal

For the majority of the time in After Tupac & D Foster, the setting takes place on the narrator's and her best friend Neeka's "stoops" or front porches. For a couple chapters, two characters are at a jail visiting a family member. In another chapter, the characters are exploring a part of the city. Therefore, for the entirety of the novel, the settings are all informal.

In these informal settings, the characters do not interact with any individual that is white, only African American individuals. The only exception is one character who is half white and half black; however, the other two main characters are not aware of that until the very end of the novel. 

The amount of informal settings is also the same for Miracle's Boys. The setting changes a little more often in Miracle's Boys than After Tupac & D Foster. However, almost all of the settings are informal. The brothers are talking amongst each other in their apartment, as they walk down the street, as they sit in a coffee shop, and as they sit on their front stoop. One setting is at the police station which could be considered formal. However, when the characters are at the police station they are only met by an African American individual. Therefore similar to After Tupac & D Foster there are not any interactions with white individuals. The boys only speak with African Americans or Puerto Ricans. 

The significance of the settings being informal versus formal is important because research shows that African American individuals use more African American Vernacular English (AAVE) features in informal settings talking amongst peers, family, and friends from the same or similar communities than in formal settings (13).

In Renn's article "Patterns of Style in the Language of African American Children and Adolescents," she conducts a study that shows more AAVE features being used in informal settings than formal ones especially for adolescents (13). Renn chooses 5 variables such as gender and observes how the variables influence the use of AAVE for children in the first, sixth, and eighth grade.

In all 5 studies where each variable is studied, the results reveal how AAVE features are used more at informal events than formal events for the sixth and eighth graders (13). When comparing Renn's research to Woodson's novels, the characters' dialogue does match up with research in reference to a high frequency of AAVE features being used in informal settings.

Grammatical AAVE Features-After Tupac and D Foster 

Out of several AAVE features, the following 3 grammatical features that showed up the most for After Tupac and D Foster were:

• Invariant or Habitual Be 
• Ain't
• Zero Copula

Invariant or Habitual Be

Out of all three features, invariant be was used the most at a quantity of 45 times. However, all three features were used almost equally throughout the dialogue with only a maximum difference of five between them. Although according to Rickford habitual be is "probably the best-known feaure of Vernacular Black English" (10). 

"People's mom be all complicated." (p.11)

Ain't

Ain't is a grammatical feature that is used for negation. The word is used in replace of "am not", "isn't", "aren't", "hasn't", haven't" and "didn't" in Standard English (10).  Ain't is used 44 times equally between the three girls.

"He ain't gonna try to get revenge on nobody and he ain't trying to be a disgrace to anybody either.(p.3)

Zero Copula

Right behind ain't, zero copula appears 40 times thoughout the text. Zero copula is a grammatical feature that eliminates "is" and "are" in a sentence and does not replace it with any word (10). 

"It's like we the same in some crazy way." (p.10)

Grammatical Features- Miracle's Boys

Woodson uses less grammatical features in Miracle's Boys than in After Tupac & D Foster. Nevertheless, AAVE features are used in the dialogue and the three most used features are 

• Ain't
• Zero Copula
• Generalization of is and was

Ain't

Similar to After Tupac & D Foster, ain't is used the most in Miracle's Boys throughout the dialogue at a frequency of 34 times. Ain't is actually the only feature that is used more than 10 times in the novel. All the rest of the features are used very rarely. Below is one example of how the author used ain't.

"My name ain't Lala." (8, p.8)

Zero Copula

The next most spoken feature is zero copula which was used 8 times. This is a drastic difference between the two novels. However, this was the second most used feature in the text. 

"Nobody in this room talking to you" (8, p.7)

Generalization of Is and Was

For this feature, AAVE speakers use the word is and was instead of are and were. This feature was used 5 times in the novel. 

"The last time any of us was in a church was for Mama's funeral." (8, p.6) 

Gender Differences

One of the variables Renn chose to observe when looking at stylistic shifting between informal and formal settings of African American children and adolescents was gender (13). For her results, gender did not affect the use of AAVE features for sixth or eighth grade. For sixth grade, males and females used the same amount of features and for eighth grade there was only a difference of one. 

In another article, Craig and Grogger mention how their research also showed how gender does not affect "AAE feature production rates" and how they were surprised by their findings because "prior research has reported that males produce higher rates of contrastive AAE forms than females across the age span"(14, p.10)

However, even though, gender may not affect the number of times AAVE features are used; gender effects how AAVE is spoken. Rickford points out how African American Vernacular English is "not simply a compendium of features" (10). 

"Skilled AAVE speakers use features, together with distinctive AAVE words, prosodies, and rhetorical/expressive styles, to inform, persuade, attract, praise, celebrate, chastise, entertain, educate, get over, set apart, mark identity, reflect, refute, brag, and do all the varied things for which human beings use language." (10)

How AAVE speakers "use features" to "persuade, attract, praise..." and more not only differs between other dialects but between gender within the same dialect (10). 

Denise Troutman, a known linguist, writes an in-depth article listing several characteristics of African American female speech which she refers to as African American Women Language or AAWL (12). In Tupac & D Foster, the main characters may not be considered women yet since they are only 11 -13. However, they are young women that will become adults and all throughout the text the three teenagers are displaying certain discourse features that Troutman describes in her article. 

Signifying

The first feature that is seen in the novel is signifying which is described as "a game of verbal wit" or "smart talk"(12,p.222). Troutman defines signifying as "an indirect form of ritualized insult" (12,p.222). Woodson shows signifying a handful of times in the text such as the example below.

"Him and me," D said, real quiet. "It's like we the same in some crazy way."

Neeka looked at me and made a face. "The only way you and him's the same," Neeka said, "is that you both Nee-groes. But you broke-ass and Tupac's got some money in his pockets." (p.10)

In the example below Neeka is quick to answer with a clever response that may offend others. However, D does not respond to Neeka's comment and later answers Neeka's question which shows Neeka's signifying was taken lightly. I presume the reason for D to not take offense is because of their close relationship. In another instance Neeka uses signifying and again there is not any offense taken.

"Albert E wasn't smart." I said. "I read somewhere that he had some kind of brain disorder. Made him say all these crazy things that made sense to people a whole lot of years later. He had a psychosis." 

Neeka looked at me. "Did you have to drink something to get that dumb? Because the good news is, eventually you'll pee it out." (p.36)

Latching

The example above is not only an instance of signifying but it is also an example of latching. Latching is a "turn-taking mechanism which occurs at the end of a conversational partner's speaking turn" and it "avoids an interruption or overlapping of a conversational partner's speech"(12, p.219). 

Many times in the novel, one will observe latching and signifying occuring at the same time which also reveals how both characteristics are assertive behaviors. Troutman quotes Houston Stanback to say how African American women are assertive in addition to African American men (12,p.219). Assertive and confident are two words I would use to describe much of the dialogue between the three girls. 

"Neeka," D said, "It's winter. It's dark. It's cold. How many other people trying to be in a park on a night like this?"

(No interruption)"The crazy ones," Neeka said back. "And that's who's gonna come after us."

(No interruption)"Ain't no one up in the park but us----once we get in there," D said. (p.77)

Turn-Taking and Collaborative Speech

D's language shows confidence as well as assurance in her language. Almost all of the dialogue consists of assertive and confident language in a "ABAB pattern" where "speaker A and speaker B take rightful turns at speaking" (12,p.215). This pattern or way of speaking is also known as turn-taking.

A: "I can't even imagine being as free as you," Neeka said. "I'd be all over the place!"

B: "That's why your mama got you on lockdown," I said.

A: "Like yours doesn't?" Neeka said back.

C: D laughed but then she said, "Some days I be feeling like I'm too free."

B: "You really think ther's such a thing as too free?" (p.18)

In this excerpt above, Neeka,the narrator, and D are taking turns without interrupting each other. They are using smart talk and humor towards each other; however, not just one person is talking, multiple people are contributing to the conversation. This exerpt not only shows turn-taking but also cooperative and collaborative speech (12, p.214). Troutman refers to this characteristic as "one speaker's comments feed directly into the other's comments, allowing the speakers to work together" (12, p.214). 

In much of the dialogue, the characters hardly interrupt each other. Two of the characters have known each other since birth and the other character will have become their friend for about two years. They are very close and refer themselves as "Three the Hard Way." Their close relationship in addition to the characters being female may be a valid reason why the girls can perform collaborative speech and turn-taking. 

Culturally-Toned Diminuitives

"Culturally toned diminutives are words that "may refer to suffixes in English,
words used with suffixes, or words which express familiarity" (12,p.217). For the
purpose of this study, the diminuitive that is seen often throughout the text is
the words "girl" and "sister" which are considered to be the "words that express familiarity."

D finished the first braid and started on the other one. "You my girl, Neeka, but you got your folks looking out for you." (p.14)

"Dag, girl" Neeka said. "Give a sister a warning before you turn on a light. (p.12)

In both instances and in many others, the characters refer to each other as girl. In much of the dialogue, the characters specifically D will repeat how Neeka and the narrator are "her girls." Using girl and other diminuitives is a sign of endearment or as Troutman refers it to, "solidarity."(12, p.217)

"The diminuitive girl, for example, is a highly visible and popular word used by many African American females to show solidarity in all spheres of their existence, public and private, and in all age groups. If they view themselves as peers, one African American female can and will call another African American female girl." (12,p.217)

After reading the above quote, I would argue that in order for Woodson's dialogue to be authentic the word "girl" would need to be seen which it is because of how close the characters are with each other. 

Lack of AAVE Features in Miracle's Boys

When mentioning her novel on her website, Miracle's Boys, Jacqueline Woodson makes a point to write how Miracle's Boys is her first novel where all of the main characters are male. She saw this novel as a challenge and opportunity for her to grow as a writer. 

As I read the novel, I found myself surprised at the amount of African American Vernacular English used in the text. Out of 131 pages, 75 pages consist of some dialogue where the other pages are the thoughts of the narrator. When collecting data to see how often AAVE features were used, there were fewer than expected. 

"What time's it?"

"Little bit after seven. You feel like going to the movies tonight after we eat?"

I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and nodded. "See what?"

Ty'ree shrugged. "I don't know. Figured we'd go downtown to the Quad and see what's playing."

"I don't want to see no art movie. You always want to take me to see those boring old art movies. Half the time I don't even know what they're about."

Ty'ree shook his head and smiled. "You'll figure it out someday."

"I don't want to figure it out someday. I want to see a movie I can figure out while I'm watching it. Only reason you (are*) asking me is 'cause nobody else'll go with you." (8, p. 50-51)

In this excerpt above, the narrator, Lafayette, and his older brother Ty'ree are discussing what they should do tonight. Ty'ree is trying to convince Lafayette to go to the movies. In this section of dialogue there are not any AAVE features except for the very last sentence where Lafayette uses zero copula. 

The lack of AAVE features in this novel is surprising because there is a lot of research that shows how AAVE is spoken more in informal settings, among adolescents, and in lower socioeconomic settings. Renn mentions in her article how AAVE features are used more in informal settings and among adolescents especially for sixth and eighth graders (13). Craig and Grogger make the claim that "the discourse of individuals from working-class or lower income homes is more likely to include greater frequencies of AAE features than the discourse of peers from middle socioeconimic status homes" (14, p.2). Yet there are not many features being used for the brothers even though they are considered to be of lower socioeconomic status. 

One possible reason for there being a lack of AAVE features is due to how the boys were raised by their mother. On page 19, Lafayette writes "Mama used to say it was better if we learned good English" (8). All the boys looked up to their mother and a very valid reason they do not use much AAVE features compared to thier peers is because their mom did not encourage speaking AAVE.

Their mom, Milagro (which means Miracle in Spanish), is actually 100% Puerto Rican, born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico (8, p.19). She traveled to the United States when she was very young (8, p.19). With her being an immigrant or "voluntary minority", she most likely saw learning "good English" or Standard English(SE) as what is needed to succeed in society and also saw SE as "not oppositional" to her identity as a Puerto Rican (15, p. 154.) Therefore, the boys learned very little Spanish in addition to AAVE. 

Another reason why there may be less AAVE feature use, specifically for Ty'ree, is due to Ty'ree's education. Lafayette mentions how Ty'ree went to "a special high school for smart kids" and how Ty'ree "was the only guy in our neighborhood (which is Harlem) to get in" (8, p.44). Lafayette also includes how Ty'ree was accepted to MIT before their mother passed away. From this information, readers can conclude that Ty'ree had really good test scores and did well in school.

This is significant to mention because according to Craig and Grogger and other research, "greater use of AAVE is linked with lower test scores" (14, p.11). In the same article, Craig and Grogger write how "someone with less than a highschool degree or GED produced AAVE forms at a rate approximately five times that of someone who has graduated college" (14, p.11) Now, Ty'ree did not graduate college and is currently not in college. However, Ty'ree had really good test scores and was able to graduate high school. Therefore, it would be expected that readers would not see as much AAVE use with Ty'ree compared to the other characters. 

AAVE Feature Use in Miracle's Boys

Even though there may not be as many AAVE features as expected and compared to After Tupac & D Foster, all three of the brothers do use some features in their speech. The character that uses the most is NewCharlie, the middle brother, who spent two years in Rahway Home for Boys, a juvenile detention center. 

Out of the three characters, he speaks the least amount in the novel. Although, about every time NewCharlie does speak he uses several AAVE features. 

"I saw him make a knife out of a slipper spoon," he said. His moms had sent him one 'cause he kept saying his shoes was getting too small, and since she couldn't afford to buy him a new pair of shoes, she sent him some Vaseline and one of those things make putting your shoes on easier--I know they got another name, but he called it a slipper spoon" (8, p. 11)

In addition to using the AAVE features above, NewCharlie uses the word ain't quite often. A major reason why NewCharlie uses AAVE features more often than his brother may be due to his extended time spent at the juvenile detention center and his friendship with Aaron. In the first chapter, NewCharlie is talking with his friend Aaron about which ethnicity group has the most street credit and how being in a gang has some influence. From spending time in the juvenile dentention center, it is safe to say that NewCharlie had spent some time with many adolescents that were in gangs or knew others in gangs. Also, at the end of the book, NewCharlie gets himself in trouble because he found himself at a gang initiation for his friend Aaron. 

This is important to highlight because according to Dunstan's article, adolescent boys that are affiliated with gangs or know people in gangs are more likely to use AAVE features (16). In Dunstan's article, the only two variables that had a significant affect on AAVE use was gang affiliation and being a male (16). Therefore, Woodson's use of AAVE features for NewCharlie matches up with research where teengage boys that know someone in a gang or are in a gang themselves will most likely use AAVE features in their speech.  

Although, gang affiliation is not the only reason why adolescent boys use AAVE features. As said before, being in an informal setting and having a lower socioeconomic status also influences AAVE use. Therefore, we see Ty'ree and Lafayette also use AAVE features such as ain't, double negation, and habitual be.

"How come you ain't outside, Laf?" 

"First you tell me don't be getting into trouble, then--"

"Little ouside never hurt nobody," Ty'ree said, mimicking me.

So even though, Woodson does not use as many AAVE features in Miracle's Boys than After Tupac & D Foster, AAVE features are still being used and the choice of not using AAVE features in certain instances is supported by Ty'ree's education and the mother's beliefs about Standard English as a voluntary minority.