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I'm from South America and I've been fluent (at least in my opinion) in English for several years as of now. With this in mind it has really called my attention lately that I've heard Afro-American people say, for example,

"I don't like no cats" instead of "I don't like cats". With double negation.

And the other one is, for example,

"Look at them kids" instead of "Look at the kids". With them instead of the.

It is not really confusing tbh but I'm just curious about why this happens?

Laurel
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Cristian Baeza
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  • It's not particularly AAVE. What all these features (double negatives, *them* instead of *those, discarding certain "content-free" verbs, etc.) have in common is they explicitly* ignore "standard, mainstream" syntax. This usually leads to simpler syntax (or in the case of double negatives, greater emphasis). People everywhere have a natural tendency to do this - it's just that outside of "established" dialects like AAVE, people are likely to have been trained since childhood to avoid such "syntactically incorrect" usages. – FumbleFingers Aug 18 '23 at 12:07
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    The Rolling Stones: I can't get no satisfaction is vernacular British English. So is Pink Floyd's Teacher, leave them kids alone. – Weather Vane Aug 18 '23 at 12:07
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    Like an explanation for why different dialects exist at all? An explanation of how these features came to be found in AAVE? We do already have questions about these features: Origin and correctness of “ain’t no”? and Could "them" mean "those"? — note that neither of these is specific to AAVE. – Laurel Aug 18 '23 at 12:10
  • “However, we hear double and triple negatives spoken in some regional dialects of English. This is common when people from the same region are speaking with one another. Double negatives like this are not acceptable in formal situations or in writing.” Cambridge Dictionary – Gio Aug 18 '23 at 12:21
  • I'd use '... I've been fluent (at least in my opinion) in English for several years now.' – Edwin Ashworth Aug 18 '23 at 13:30
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    "I don't like no cats" does not reduce to "I don't like cats" in meaning, but to "I don't like any cats." – Yosef Baskin Aug 18 '23 at 13:48
  • @WeatherVane, I wouldn't consider it obvious to outsiders that lyrics by those bands represent British usage. Both of them (especially the Stones) produced a lot of material imitating African American artists. – The Photon Aug 18 '23 at 15:12
  • I absolutely love that. I will sometimes use these. I'm a learner but I believe knowing how to use this and when shows a greater proficiency and knowledge of the English language. Also, I'm quite educated. – ninja米étoilé Aug 20 '23 at 00:03

1 Answers1

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Those two particular practices are common in the speech of the lesser educated in North America, and not only the Afro-American section of this social stratum; moreover the double negation equivalent to a single negation is not at all uncommon in the English of the literate individuals whose occupation consist in providing entertainment to the public, both in North America and the UK; it is remarkable that Bob Dylan, for instance, a now Nobel prize of literature, uses it in his songs (You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (1967)); as for the UK, one might refer to the Rolling Stones, who show no less scruples in using this grammar ("I can't get no satisfaction"). It is then clear, that, however criticized those practices might be on both sides of the Atlantic, they remain deeply ingrained in the culture, and one should not be surprised to realize that they persist.

LPH
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