An Investigation of the Grammatical Feature Usage of African American Vernacular English in Justin Bieber’s Songs
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Abstract
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a distinct variety of English that exhibits unique phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. However, the focus of this study was on the grammatical aspects of AAVE. The objectives were to identify and analyze the predominant grammatical features of AAVE employed by Justin Bieber in his songs from 2009 to 2021 and to examine and describe the specific syntactic features of AAVE found in Justin Bieber songs. The data was collected and compared over a span of several years. The grammatical features were analyzed based on the theories proposed by Wolfram (2004) and Rickford (1999). The results indicated that the three most frequently observed features were Negation Forms, which occurred 79 times over a period of 9 years, Specialized Auxiliaries, which appeared 44 times over 9 years, and Copula Absence, which was present 34 times over 7 years. Additionally, the study identified several other AAVE features over a 10-year span, including Copula Absence, Invariant "be," Remote "been," Specialized Auxiliaries, Subject-Verb Agreement, Nominals, Negation Forms, and Question Formation. Upon comparison, it was observed that the number of AAVE features decreased in the last five years compared to the first five years. Consequently, this research provides valuable insights into the grammatical features of AAVE and highlights the variations in the syntactic characteristics of AAVE that have an impact on popular music.
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