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I hear some people using infinitive form especially with the verb "to be" in songs or regular conversations. I don't know exactly it mean means grammatically. Can anyone help?

For example:

He be saying nonsense.

Justin
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CHOSM
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  • It's not standard English. Depending on how it's pronounced, it could be a number of dialects. But the fact that it's in a song suggests it's AAVE (African-American Vernacular English, aka Black English), which occurs in many many versions and dialects. I doubt, though, that any of them would have said saying -- much more likely is sayin. Velar nasals at the end of a word tend to change. – John Lawler Apr 10 '22 at 01:03
  • I don't think it should be analyzed as an infinitive. In this dialect they have regularized the verb "be" to be like other verbs, which don't vary in form based on person or number. Note in AAVE, "be" plus present participle has a different aspect than in standard American. – siride Apr 10 '22 at 03:48
  • I've heard "be" used this way in old (Dickensian) Kentish (SE England). – BillJ Apr 10 '22 at 06:27

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Part of the answer to this question is in the answer to the duplicate referred to by @livresque. But there is more that is relevant:

Wikipedia gives a brief insight into the usage:

The dialect is not, as some people suppose, English spoken in a slovenly and ignorant way. It is the remains of a language—the court language of King Alfred. ... In some cases, many of these forms are closer to modern Saxon (commonly called Low German/Low Saxon) than Standard British English is. For example:

Low German; Somerset; Standard British English
Ik bün; I be/A be; I am
Du büst; Thee bist; You are (archaic "Thou art")
He is; He be; He is {my emphasis}

Wikipedia continues convincingly:

West Country dialects have been treated with some derision, which has led many local speakers to abandon them or water them down. In particular it is British comedy which has brought them to the fore outside their native regions, and paradoxically groups such as The Wurzels, a comic North Somerset/Bristol band from whom the term Scrumpy and Western music originated, have both popularised and made fun of them simultaneously. In an unusual regional breakout, the Wurzels' song "The Combine Harvester" reached the top of the UK charts in 1976, where it did nothing to dispel the "simple farmer" stereotype of Somerset and West Country folk. It and all their songs are sung entirely in a local version of the dialect, which is somewhat exaggerated and distorted.

Anton
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