“Put the Groceries Up”

2017/08/01 by Martha Austen · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Australian History and Society #Race, History, and American Society #Philippine History and Culture #Business

paper · doi:10.1215/00031283-4312064

openalex publication_date 2017/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/09

Abstract

While recent research has found regional variation within African-American English (AAE), little work has examined this variation on a broad scale: what are the regional dialects of AAE, and how do they compare with those of European-American English? This study examines two lexicosyntactic variables, put up/put away (put the groceries up/away) and test over/test on (test over/on chapter five). Applying machine learning techniques to Twitter data, I find that while put up is a Southern feature for white speakers, black speakers favor put up in the South and Midwest as compared to the West Coast and the Northeast. These results suggest a combined South/Midwest region of AAE, supporting recent findings of Taylor Jones. In contrast, for test over, black and white speakers pattern together in a previously undocumented region comprising parts of the South and Midwest.

Citations

• The African American “Great Migration” and Beyond
• Toward a Description of African American Vernacular English Dialect Regions Using “Black Twitter”
• African American English

Cited by

• African-American Vernacular English [wikipedia]

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