Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Newkirk, Brandi Lynette
Author's Email Address	blnewkirk@aol.com
URN	etd-07062010-155814
Title	The Auxiliary System of Typically Developing Children Acquiring African American English
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department	Communication Sciences & Disorders
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Oetting, Janna Committee Chair Hegarty, Michael Committee Member Hoffman, Paul Committee Member Norris, Janet Committee Member Stockman, Ida Committee Member Marks, Loren Dean's Representative
Keywords	auxiliary system African American English language acquisition
Date of Defense	2010-06-25
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract This study’s purpose was to examine the acquisition and use of BE, DO, and modal auxiliaries by African American English (AAE)-speaking children. The impetus for this work was the lack of information regarding the developmental trajectory of these auxiliary types and their use, in AAE relative to what is known about auxiliary acquisition and use in Mainstream American English (MAE). The study used two datasets of language samples: one that contained 48 language samples from 3 ½-year-old children and one that contained 36 longitudinal language samples of five children who were between 18 and 51 months of age. Results from Dataset 1 indicated that young AAE-speaking children’s auxiliary systems contain BE, DO, and modal contexts. Overt marking of auxiliaries within these contexts was related to type of auxiliary and the children’s dialect densities. Of the three auxiliary types, overt marking was most variable for BE followed by DO, and least variable for modals. Overt marking of BE was influenced by succeeding verbal element and grammatical type of BE form. Overt marking of both BE and DO was influenced by syntactic construction. In contrast, overt marking of modals was high in all contexts. Results from Dataset 2 revealed that initial production of auxiliary contexts occurred between 19 and 24 months. For BE, DO, and modals, the range of forms produced was initially restricted but expanded as the children aged. Percentage of overt marking did not increase by age. Instead, overt marking was variable across the developmental period for BE and DO, but high in all contexts for modals. Also, from very young ages, the overt marking of BE and DO was influenced by the same linguistic variables examined with Dataset 1. Together the findings indicate that young AAE-speaking children’s use of BE, DO, and modals is consistent with what has been documented for adult AAE in the amount and nature of their overt marking; however, the children’s dialect density influenced the degree to which the children’s use of BE, DO, and modals aligned with the adult AAE literature. Nevertheless, AAE-speaking children’s BE, DO, and modals emerged at the same ages and in the same general developmental sequence as MAE-speaking children.
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