The site I analyzed was Blackplanet.com. It is a social networking system, welcome for all but centered on the Black community. Many different users can go on the website and make personal profiles about themselves. Users can meet new people, discuss current news, talk about music, etc. It is a very popular site, with a wide variety of users and people to meet. Within the site I found many ways in which AAVE is appropriated.
The first thing I noticed when I browsed from the various profiles was the way individuals represented themselves. I found it very common that people would brag about themselves in this particular section where you give information about yourself. The personal information was boastful and a little arrogant at sometimes. Many times the information given was unrealistic and over the top. I found this to be an AAVE rhetorical feature called braggadocio.
The next thing I noticed was many users would use AAVE or sometimes considered “slang”, quite often. For example, the word “love” was spelled “luv”. The word “thanks” was spelled “thanx” on some users. I came across some sentences I thought were perfect examples. For instance, “Whut up black P, you C we did it right U know”, only assuming it could mean “ What is up, black people, you see we did it right you know?”.
I next came upon people’s user’s names which I found very interesting. Instead of using normal or formal given names, users of the site used some pretty rambunctious ones. For instance twizzmoney, moneymaking guy, nakedwithsockson, get-money-641, and The Dazzler. I found it very interesting people would pick these names over the standard Jane or John Doe.
The last thing that really stuck out was the way users of the site would talk about how bad or sick they were. They did not have the common cold or were going to jail serve a term, however they were actually “bad” and “sick”. They used semantic inversion a lot to describe themselves. For example, “I aint the average guy, im way SIKKER!”. Saying he is “sicker” could mean that he is a lot cooler.
Overall, the site is a great way to social network. I found a lot of examples of AAVE everywhere I looked, mostly semantic inversion and braggadocio.
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I think that this is good and I don't really disagree with anything though I am kind of confused in a few spots where there seems to be a lack of explanation to the words that are used. I was really confused on the bad and sick examples. I knew what they were not but did not know what they were. I agree with all that you are saying about how all the AAE is used on the web because it is there and it was also good examples. The IAR strategy that could help you out would be What is being revised? Your work was good but you didn't really convince me of anything.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Clara on the lack of explanation. I'd also caution that some of your examples (thanx, luv, etc.) are examples of digital language, but not AAVE. You talk about some of the postings being arrogant, but remember that braggadocio is an AAVE rhetorical example and is acceptable in Black discourse. What other grammatical and rhetorical features can you find?
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