Chapter 3: Grammar across Appalachia

Reflection Questions:

1. When you hear the word grammar, what comes to mind?

2. Look up the word grammar in a standard dictionary. How do those definitions differ from your immediate reactions to the word?

3. How does Chapter 3 use the word grammar?

4. What is morphology, and what kinds of things does morphology produce?

5. What is syntax, and what kinds of things does syntax produce?

6. What does it mean for something to be stigmatized, and how does it get to be that way?

Appalachian Patterns:

a-prefixing

1. Have you heard people use a-prefixing in a phrase like She’s a-walking? If so, did they use it in a normal conversation, in telling a story, or in some other special way? When you hear a-prefixing, what comes to mind?
2. In its language patterns, a-prefixing has several different constraints. List them all and provide examples that conform to the constraints and then examples that do not conform to the constraints.

Multiple negation

1. When you hear multiple negation, what comes to mind? Does hearing it call to mind certain people you know? Is multiple negation stigmatized for you or for the people who use it?

2. Was it surprising to read that multiple negation was standardly used in early English periods? From the start of English (around 450 C.E.) to at least 1500, a 1,000 years or more, multiple negation was used with out being critiqued. Why is it considered not appropriate for formal school English today? (Check out the introductory sections of Chapter 11 for a discussion of the underlying basis for judgment about language).

Leveled was

1. What are the different kinds of was leveling? How do they differ in how common they are?

2. Why do so many dialects of English keep trying to level the past be paradigm?

Demonstrative them

1. What are demonstratives in English? How many are there?

2. Demonstrative them in Appalachia has gone through some changes. Who used it more in the past compared to today?

Reflexive pronouns

1. The word reflexives is probably a new grammar term for most students. What are reflexives?

2. How did the vernacular reflexive forms get crafted? How did the more standard ones?

3. Do you think reflexive pronouns in Appalachia are undergoing change?

Second-person pronouns

1. What second-person pronouns do you use the most? 

2. Do the different second-person pronouns mean different things to you? Perhaps different regions?

3. Do you switch up your second-person pronoun based on your audience?

- ing variation

1. The spelling - ing could be used to attach to a verb or could be used to make a noun. Provide three example sentences for each usage. Added bonus points for three more sentences that have - ing working on an adjective.

2. In what ways is the - ing suffix attached to the history of the English language?

3. People use variation in the pronunciation of - ing for social reasons. What can using more - in’ show for a speaker? What could using more - ing show for a speaker?

Quotatives

1. What do quotatives do? How can they help a story?

2. Why are like (verb) and like (preposition) homonyms? What makes them homonyms?

3. What does the pattern of quotative be like in Appalachia show about how the region is connected to the rest of the US?

Other grammar patterns

1. Of the Other Grammar Patterns on pages 48 & 49, how many of them have you heard before? Who used them?