African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series

Facultad de Filología Trabajo de Fin de Grado African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series Tutor: Mario Cal Varela Julio 2016 Curso académico 2015/2016 Trabajo de Fin de Grado presentado en la Facultad de Filología de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela para la obtención del Grado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesas. Autora: Joana Costas Domínguez Facultad de Filología Trabajo de Fin de Grado African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series Tutor: Mario Cal Varela Autora: Joana Costas Domínguez Julio 2016 Curso académico 2015/2016 Trabajo de Fin de Grado presentado en la Facultad de Filología de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela para la obtención del Grado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesas. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 1 Abstract African American Vernacular English or AAVE is a variety of American English often spoken by African Americans in urban or Southern regions. The fact that a large number of people speak this variety has led African American Vernacular English to before almost a half-century an important topic of discussion among both; linguists and the public. Linguists maintain that there is nothing “wrong” or “incorrect” about African American Vernacular English since, like other dialects, it only deviates from the standard and shows a consistent internal logic. However, it is known that this variety is highly stigmatized, and as a consequence, speakers of American Vernacular English are often regarded as ignorant or uneducated people as well as members of a lower social class. In this study I will give an overview of the main characteristics of African American Vernacular English through an analysis of relevant descriptive sources, and see how this language variety is represented in the media, especially in the popular TV series entitled “The Wire” which is settled in Baltimore. The wide range of characters that this series presents will allow me to figure out if there is some sort of variability in the use of this variety depending on the social context or the recipient. Moreover, I will also try to conclude how this variety is established as symbol of black identity. Key words: AAVE, media, variability and identity. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 2 Table of contents Abstract......................................................................................................................................1 Table of contents........................................................................................................................2 1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................3 2. African American Vernacular English: historical and social context.....................................4 2.1 Origins.......................................................................................................................4 2.2 Different terms used to make reference to this variety.............................................9 2.3 Is AAVE a homogeneous variety?..........................................................................10 2.4 Language attitudes..................................................................................................11 2.4.1 Linguistic prejudice: stigmatization..........................................................12 2.4.2 The Oakland School Board Proposal........................................................14 3. The features of AAVE..........................................................................................................16 3.1 Phonological features..............................................................................................16 3.2 Grammatical features..............................................................................................19 3.3 Lexicon....................................................................................................................23 4. AAVE in popular TV series: The Wire.................................................................................25 4.1 Introduction to the TV series The Wire...................................................................25 4.2 Materials and method..............................................................................................27 4.3 Analysis of the fragments.......................................................................................30 4.3.1 Fragment 1............................................................................................30 4.3.2 Fragment 2............................................................................................32 4.3.3 Fragment 3............................................................................................33 4.3.4 Fragment 4............................................................................................35 4.4 Discussion of the fragments....................................................................................35 5. Conclusion............................................................................................................................39 Bibliography..............................................................................................................................42 Appendix...................................................................................................................................44 African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 3 1. Introduction The African-American culture has been always for me one of the most interesting and richest; its history, its music, its tradition, its literature and, what attracts me more, its language. For this reason, I have decided to focus my study on one of one of the most controversial varieties of English which is directly related to African-American people: African American Vernacular English. Moreover, this variety has been and continuous to be, an important topic of discussion among society and linguists and, for this reason, I consider African American Vernacular English to be an important and interesting object of study. The main purposes of this paper are, firstly, to study how, where and when this variety appears, this leads us to the study of its origins and historical context. Additionally we will try to analyse its social context, what means; how people and institutions react to African American Vernacular English and what kind of language attitudes are showed towards this variety. Moreover, it is also important to study what kind of people speaks it and in which manner or with which frequency and try to get to know, as a consequence, if this variety is a homogeneous one. Another principal object of this paper is to analyze the features that define African American Vernacular English. In order to do this, we will focus on a bibliographically search and study the main relevant descriptive sources to portray the phonological, grammatical and lexicon features that characterize this variety. The main purposes of this analysis are firstly, to know the language variety that this paper studies and not only the context that surrounds it and, secondly, to demonstrate that, contrary to what many people think; African American Vernacular English is a systematic variety, and that it shows a perfectly organized internal logic as any other language variety. Finally, we will try to analyse how African American Vernacular English is represented in the media. African American Vernacular English is a variety that is present in many films, songs, novels, series... For this reason, and in order to see how the features described by linguists in the descriptive sources are represented in the media, I have decided to analyse the use of African American Vernacular English in a very popular TV series entitled The Wire. In order to do it, I am going to select several scenes with the object of analyse the use of this variety by different types of characters. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 4 Through the analysis of these selected scenes I will try to conclude if there is any kind of variation in the way the different characters use African American Vernacular English, and if there is variation, I will try to figure out if it responds to a change in the character’s social context as the social class, sex or age. Moreover I will also expect to find out if there is any kind of variability in the use of this variety by the different characters depending on the recipient, what means that, this study of the series will try to show if there is any kind of accommodation (convergence or divergence) towards the speech of the recipient. In order to accomplish the above mentioned objectives, the structure of this paper will consist on three different sections. The first one will be dedicated to give an overview of the historical and social context which surrounds African American Vernacular English, in the second section, I will analyse the phonological, grammatical and lexicon features of this variety and, the last section will be dedicated to the analysis of the use of African American Vernacular English in the TV series The Wire. 2. African American Vernacular English: historical and social context One of the first things that one must do in order to study a language variety is to know the origins of it; how, where and when it appears and how, when and towards which places it has been spread. It is also important study what people think about that variety and what type of linguistic attitudes people show towards it. Finally, the speakers of that variety must also be analysed in order to get to know what kind of people speak it and in which manner or with which frequency and try to get to know, as a consequence, if this variety is a homogeneous one. For these reasons, in the following sections we will give a brief overview of the historical and social context which has surrounded African American Vernacular English since the very beginning. 2.1 Origins African American Vernacular English is a variety of English spoken by those people in the United States who have African-American origins, that is, people who descend from the original African population that was transported there. The ancestors of most African Americans came to the United States as slaves, which mean that African American Vernacular English was born out of the history of slavery in this country. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 5 This African population first arrived to the colony of Jamestown in North America, Virginia, in 1619, and from that moment onwards, a stable stream of slaves continued to arrive to the country for centuries. “Even though the slave trade became illegal in 1808, the domestic trade flourished and the slave population in the United States nearly tripled over the next 50 years, by 1860 it had reached nearly 4 million” (Staff, 2009). In spite the fact that African Americans are currently distributed across the whole country, they were originally settled only in the south, in an area which goes from Texas in the West to North and South Carolina in the East where they worked as slaves for the white owners of the plantations. This explains why African American Vernacular English shares many features with Southern American English. The following map (figure 1) provided by the Social Science Data Analysis (2000) shows how: “African Americans comprise the United States' largest racial minority, accounting for 12.1 percent of the total population in 2000. This population is concentrated largely in the southern states and urban areas”. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 6 Figure 1. The map shows the percentage of the spread of African American population through the United States in 2000. (SSDAN, 2000) As a consequence of the Industrial Revolution, especially in the first part of the nineteenth century, a migration from the south to the north began. This led to the fact that many African Americans started to live in industrial centres of the north and north east. These slaves brought with them new languages totally different from English as Rickford (1999) affirms: Like the forebears of many other Americans, these waves of African “immigrants” spoke languages other than English. Their languages were from the Niger-Congo language family, especially the West Atlantic, Mande, and Kwa sub-groups spoken from Senegal and Gambia to the Cameroons, and the Bantu sub-group spoken further south. (p.324) But these slaves arrived in a country where English was dominant, so they had to learn English. Regarding this, there is a big controversy among linguists concerning how much these African slaves were influenced by their African languages when they learnt English. The linguistic origins of African American Vernacular English are not very clear and continue to be a matter of debate. In fact, there are three different views about how African American Vernacular English arose, as Rickford (1999) portrays in his book, trying to clarify the possible sources of this variety. The Afrocentric view This view develops the idea that majority of the representative features of African American Vernacular English have influences from African languages. When West African slaves were brought to America and acquired English, they were influenced by their own African languages and “restructured it according to the patterns of Niger-Congo languages” (Rickford, 1999, p.325). As an example of the similarities that exist between them we can highlight the way in which both African American Vernacular English and Niger-Congo languages simplify consonant clusters at the end of words and do not use linking verbs like “is” and “are” as in, for instance, the prototypical example that Rickford (1999, p.325) portrays, “he happy”. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 7 Despite this, there are important Niger-Congo languages which do not show these features and, moreover, some of them as the simplification of final consonant clusters can be found in certain vernaculars in England that had little or nothing to do with West African influence. As a consequence of this, a large number of linguists shows a sceptical attitude regarding this theory and demand more proof of the influence of African languages over African American Vernacular English. On the contrary, there are also several linguists and authors who support the Afrocentric view; among them, we can highlight Molefi Kete Asante, an African-American professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University and a well-known writer in the field of African-American Studies. Asante (1980) is considered one of his most famous books about the Afrocentricity. The Eurocentric view This second view considers that African slaves learned English as a consequence of being in contact with white settlers in the colonies, since they used to work together in households and fields. This hypothesis affirms that they acquired English successfully maintaining little of their native African languages. As a consequence, non-Standard features of African American Vernacular English as, for instance, the omission of final consonants and the use of invariant habitual “be”, would derive from dialects spoken by colonial English, Irish, or Scotch-Irish settlers. In spite of this, there are also very relevant AAVE features as the absence of linking verbs like “is” and “are” that we can hardly find or do not find at all in the dialects of these early settlers. So, consequently, and as happens with the Afrocentric view, we still do not have enough historical information to confirm this hypothesis. Moreover, this view seems to be the less popular among linguists and historians since, as Rickford (1999) states: “The assumption that slaves rapidly and successfully acquired the dialects of the Whites around them requires a rosier view of their relationship than the historical record and contemporary evidence suggest” (p.326). African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 14 2.4.2 The Oakland School Board Proposal There have been a lot of controversies regarding African American Vernacular English but undoubtedly the most important one was the Oakland controversy of 1996-1997. On December 18, 1996, the Oakland School Board of Oakland, California, passed a resolution in which Ebonics was recognized as the primary language of African American children in schools: “Board of Education officially recognizes the existence, and the cultural and historic bases of West and Niger-Congo African Language Systems, and each language as the predominantly primary language of African-American students” (Baugh, 2000, p.46). Furthermore, this resolution also declared Ebonics to be separate language, not an English dialect: “These studies have also demonstrated that African Language Systems are genetically based and not a dialect of English” (Baugh, 2000, p.44). A big controversy has surrounded the Oakland resolution since it has been passed and, as a consequence of this, the Oakland School Board reacted with a more conservative position, passing a new resolution on January 15, 1997. In this new version we can appreciate a new emphasis on the importance of learning Standard English and certain statements that we can find in the first version and previously mentioned such as “genetically based” turn now into “have origins in West and Niger Congo languages and are not merely dialects of English” (Baugh, 2000, p.44). The intention of this modified resolution was not to teach Ebonics as a separate or main language, but to use it as an instrument to improve the use of Standard English among African American students who speak Ebonics: Implement the best possible academic program for imparting instruction to African-American students in their primary language for the combined purposes of maintaining the legitimacy and richness of such language whether it is known as "Ebonics," "African Language Systems," "Pan-African Communication Behaviors" or other description, and to facilitate their acquisition and mastery of English language skills. (Baugh, 2000, p.46) The resolution added: “Instructional assistants, who are certified in the methodology of African Language Systems principles, used to transition students from the language patterns they bring to school to English” (Baugh, 2000, p.45). African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 15 As we can read above, they considered important for Ebonics speakers to be aware of the differences that exist between their vernacular language and Standard English in order to learn the latter easily. As Rickford (1999) affirms, educators must take into account Ebonics in order to teach children Standard English: “There is experimental evidence both from the United States and Europe that mastering the standard language might be easier if the differences in the student vernacular and Standard English were made explicit rather than entirely ignored” (p.327). Rickford (1999) provides some supporting evidence: At Aurora University, outside Chicago, inner-city African American students were taught by an approach that contrasted Standard English and Ebonics features through explicit instruction and drills. After eleven weeks, this group showed a 59 percent reduction in their use of Ebonics features in their Standard English writing. But a control group taught by conventional methods showed an 8.5 percent increase in such features. (p.327) As a reaction to these two resolutions proposed by the Oakland School Board of Oakland, Oklahoma passed a bill banning the instruction of Ebonics in schools and suggesting that African American Vernacular English could be a threat to the society: Ebonics means an Africanized form of English reflecting Black Americans’ linguistic-cultural ties to their African heritage. Ebonics may also be known as Black English or Black dialect….. [As this action is] immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, and safety, an emergency is hereby declared to exist. [H.B] (1810) The Oakland School Board answers that with this resolution they were only promoting the Standard English Proficiency program, or SEP. This program was actually founded by the federal government and it uses the methodology of teaching a foreign language in order to help students to change from non-Standard to Standard English. This Ebonics controversy is a very representative example of how schools have been treating the language of African-American children for years, regarding it as “incorrect” and inferior to Standard English. The Oakland School Board resolution failed, and this happens because the teachers and administrators of the Oakland schools, as well as the parents, had a conservative point of view regarding language based on vague, idealized and erroneous standards of correctness that are, as a consequence, transmitted to the students. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 16 3. The features of AAVE As a consequence of the Ebonics controversy that emerged in 1996, people started to demand a list of African American Vernacular English features or a description of them, in order to prove that it is a systematic variety instead of bad English as people regarded it to be. In the last decades, a lot of descriptive studies have commented on the phonology, grammar, and lexicon of African American Vernacular English. Regarding lexicon, one must take into account two very influential works: Major C (1994) and Smitherman G (1994). For the description of phonology and grammar there are also very important works as the one by Baugh (1983) or the ones on which I will focus on for this paper, Rickford (1999), and Bailey G & Thomas E (1998). Even though, it is true that the majority of works which describe the phonology and grammar of African American Vernacular English are currently outdated both in terminology and coverage. The above mentioned books already describe what we know at present about African American Vernacular English, so I would like to recommend them if you want to read more about the features of this variety. However, in this paper, I will try to give a brief description of the most important African American Vernacular English’s structural features taking into account, as I have already mentioned, Rickford (1999) and Bailey G & Thomas E (1998). 3.1 Phonological features Even though the more distinctive features of AAVE are grammatical, for instance, zero copula or habitual be, linguists have gave a lot of importance also to the phonological features. In fact, they have concluded that the phonological differences between AAVE and white varieties of English are crucial and very distinctive of this variety. Moreover, Montgomery & Bailey (1986) suggest that phonology plays a crucial role in ethnic identification. The following ones are some of the most relevant phonological features of AAVE, common to many studies of AAVE phonology as Rickford (1999) and Mufwene, Rickford, Guy, & Baugh (1998) and based on them. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 17 1. Reduction of word-final consonant clusters: it is the reduction in a word of a group of two or more consonants that have not intervening vowel, especially those which end in /t/ or /d/. A prototypical example of this feature is the one mentioned both by Rickford (1999, p.4) and by Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.88): han’ for Standard English “hand”. This feature occurs in the majority of varieties of English but in AAVE, as Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.86) portray in this book, is more frequent or occur in different contexts. For instance, in most varieties of English, the final consonant in the cluster is more likely to be lost when the cluster is followed by an obstruent with the same place of articulation as in “first time”, producing: firs’ time, or when the cluster is followed by an obstruent with a different place of articulation as in “first girl”, producing: firs’ girl. On the other hand, it is less likely to be lost when the cluster is followed by a vowel as in “first apple”. Nevertheless, in AAVE, these constrains are reversed, and the /t/ in “first apple” is more likely to be lost than the /t/ in “first time”. 2. Deletion of word-final single consonant after a vowel: this occurs especially in the case of the nasals. A very clear example that Rickford (1999, p.4) portrays is the case of ma’ [mæ] for Standard English “man”. Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.89) consider this feature as apparently unique to AAVE, even though Rickford (1999) considers it less frequent than number 1. 3. Devoicing of word-final voiced stops: when a word-final voiced stop goes after a vowel, it is devoiced an as a consequence, [b] is realized as [p], [d] as [t], and [g] as [k]. The prototypical example that Rickford (1999, p.4) and Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.89) mention is the pronunciation of [bæt] for Standard English “bad”. 4. Realization of final ng as n in gerunds: as in the example mentioned by Rickford (1999, p.4), walkin’ for SE “walking”. 5. Realization of voiceless th [ϴ] as t or f: as in tin for Standard English “thin” and baf for Standard English “bath” Rickford (1999, p.4). 6. Deletion or vocalization of post vocalic /l/: when /l/ comes after a vowel, it is normally deleted or vocalized (that is pronounced as a weak neutral vowel). An examples of this mentioned by Rickford (1999, p.5) is he’p for SE “help” and toah for Standard English “toll”. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 18 Rickford (1999, p.5) also mentions that this phenomenon can result in the deletion of the “ll” of contracted will, especially when the following word begins with a labial /b/, /m/, or /w/, as in “He be here tomorrow” for Standard English “He’ll be here tomorrow”. In Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.88), this feature is considered to be present in many English varieties, not only in AAVE. 7. Deletion or vocalization of /r/ after a vowel: sistuh for Standard English “sister” or fouh for Standard English “four” are some of the examples that Rickford (1999) provides for this feature. In this same section he also affirms that: This rule applies more often when the /r/ comes at the end of a word and is followed by a word beginning with a consonant (four posts) rather than a word beginning with a vowel (four apples), but it can also apply when a vowel follows within the same word, as in Ca’ol for SE “Carol” or sto’y for SE “story”. (p.5) Moreover, the deletion of /r/ after a vowel can have the grammatical effect of the use of “they” for the Standard English possessive “their”. Finally, Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.88), classify this feature as present also in other non-standard varieties, not only in AAVE, even though it is a feature that tends to be more common in the South. 8. Deletion of unstressed syllables: this occurs both with initial and medial syllables. Rickford (1999, p.5) and Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.88) provide typical examples of this feature as: ‘fraid for “afraid”, sec’t’ry for “secretary”, ‘bout for “about”, or gov’ment for “government”. Certain linguists find this feature to be strongly age-graded, as Rickford (1999) reflects: According to Vaughn-Cooke (1987, p.22), the unstressed syllable deletion rate for speakers over 60 years old in her Mississippi sample was 85 percent, for speakers aged 40-59 it was 70 percent, and for speakers 8-20 years old, it was 52 percent. (p.5) The deletion of unstressed syllables is present in the majority of English varieties, even though it is more frequent in AAVE (see Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.88)). African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 19 9. Metathesis of final /s/+stop: metathesis is a phenomenon that consists in the transposition of adjacent consonants, as in the example that Rickford (1999, p.5) provides: aks for Standard English “ask”. This example is one of the most representative of AAVE; “One of the biggest shibboleths of AAVE, often referred to by teachers, personnel officers, and other gatekeepers in the course of putting down the variety” (Rickford, 1999, p.5). Other typical examples of metathesis are waps for “wasp” or graps for grasp. 10. Monophthongal pronunciations of ay and oy, as in ah for Standard English “I” and boah for Standard English “boy” (see Rickford (1999, p.5)). 11. Merger of /ɪ/ and /ɜ/ before nasals: Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.89) provide two clear examples of this phenomenon, which are, [pɪn] for Standard English “pen”, and [wɪnzdi] for Standard English Wednesday. 12. Stress on first rather than second syllable: this feature is very distinctive of AAVE, some typical examples of it are the ones mentioned by Rickford (1999, p.5) as, pólice instead of Standard English políce, or hótel instead of Standard English hotél. According to many linguists, this feature only affects to a small group of words. 13. Loss of /j/ after consonants: this feature is commonly called yod-dropping and it is very likely to occur in American English especially after dental and alveolar consonants, as in “news” that is pronounced /nuːz/ in American English in contrast with /njuːz/ in British English. Despite this, in African American Vernacular English we can find different cases to the ones that we have already mentioned about American English and which, as a result, are apparently unique to AAVE. Bailey G & Thomas E (1998, p.89) provide some typical examples as [kəmpurə] for Standard English “computer”, or [hustn] for Standard English “Houston”. 3.2 Grammatical features 14. Absence of copula is and are for present tense states and actions: an example of this feature could be “She Ø happy” for Standard English “She is happy”, or “We Ø swimming” for Standard English “We are swimming”. 15. Use of invariant be: a. To indicate habitual aspect or habitual actions, as the examples that Rickford (1999, p.6) provides which is the use of “He be walking” for Standard English “He is usually walking/usually walks”. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 20 The auxiliary do is used in non-affirmative sentences: “Used with auxiliary do in questions, negatives, and tag questions, as in “Do he be walking every day?” or “She don’t be sick, do she?”” (Rickford, 1999, p.6). b. To indicate the future form “will be”, as in “We be tired tomorrow” for Standard English “We will be tired tomorrow”. This feature is a consequence of the phonological rule that consists on deleting the “ll” of the contracted form of “will” (see number 5 above). 16. Use of steady: it is used as an intensified pre-verbal marker, usually after invariant habitual be (see number 14.b above), and before a progressive verb. This used of steady gives the semantic meaning of an action that occurs repeatedly. Rickford (1999, p.6) provides a clear example of this: “Ricky Bell be steady steppin in them number nines”. 17. Use of unstressed been or bin: this feature consists in the use of been or bin for Standard English’s present perfect form (“has/have been”) as in, for instance, “We been occupied this last summer” for Standard English “We have been occupied this last summer”. As we can see in this example, unstressed been can co-occur with adverbs of time (“last week”). 18. Use of done to emphasize that an action is already completed: Rickford (1999, p.6) gives a prototypical example of this feature which is the use of done in “He done did it” for Standard English “He’s already done it”. Rickford (1999, p.6), also provides examples of the cases in which done co-occur with been (see number 16 above), for instance: “By the time I got there, he been done gone” for Standard English “He has been gone”, or, it is also possible to find it in the reverse order, “They done been sitting there an hour” for Standard English “They have been sitting there an hour”. 19. Use of double modals: this feature is very characteristic of AAVE as well as in the majority of Southern White vernaculars. The use of may can, might can, and might could, are some examples that Rickford (1999, p.6) provides, they are used for Standard English “might be able to”. Rickford (1999, p.6) also provides another example that, in this case, is unique to AAVE, that is the use of must don’t for Standard English “must not”. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 21 20. Generalization of is and was: this feature consists on the generalize use of is and was with plural and second person subjects, that is, the use of is instead of “are” for the second person singular, and the use of was instead of “were” for the plural subjects. Some example of this could be: “You was here yesterday” for Standard English “You were here yesterday” or “They was there” for Standard English “They were there”. 21. Absence of third person singular present tense –s: this feature is very characteristic of AAVE, an example of it could be the use of “She singØ” instead of Standard English “She sings”. Related to this rule is also the use of don’t instead of “doesn’t” or have instead of “has” since “does/doesn’t” and “has/hasn’t” include the third person singular –s. Some examples of this are: “He don’t know” instead of Standard English “He doesn’t know” or “She have one” instead of Standard English “She has one”. 22. Absence of possessive –s: this happens when, for instance, “MaryØ car” is used instead of Standard English “Mary’s car”. 23. Use of and (th)em or nem: they are usually used after a proper name or after a verb, and they are used to make reference to a plural person. In most cases it has an associative function, as in, “Mary an’ em” meaning “Mary and her friends or family or some people related to her. In other cases, it is used simply to make reference to other group of people as in “Kill ‘em all” instead of Standard English “Kill all of them” or “Kill them”. Rickford (1999, p.7) comments on this feature and states that this feature is very similar to English Creoles than to other varieties of English. He also mentions that other southern white varieties have this feature too. 24. Use of appositive pronouns: they are also called pleonastic pronouns and they are pronouns that support another word, phrase, or clause and describing or modifying it. Their use is very frequent in AAVE, an instance of it is the example that Rickford (1999, p.7) provides: “That teacher, she yell at the kids” for Standard English “That teacher Ø yells at the kids”. 25. Use of y’all and they as possessives: in AAVE it is frequent to find y’all to mark second person plural possessive, and they to mark third person plural possessive. As a consequence, they are used instead of “your” and “their” respectively, as in “This is y’all car” for Standard English “This is your car”, or “It’s they dog” for Standard English “It’s their dog”. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 22 26. Absence of relative pronouns: in many varieties of English it is possible the omission of object relative pronouns (e.g. “That’s the girl (who) I saw”), but this feature makes reference also to the omission of subject relative pronouns, which is rarer and very characteristic of AAVE. An example of this could be the following sentence: “That’s the man Ø come here” for Standard English “That’s the man who came here”. 27. Use of ain’(t) as negator: in AAVE it is common the use of ain’(t) instead of Standard English “am not”, “isn’t”, “aren’t”, “hasn’t”, “haven’t”, and “didn’t”, as in “She ain’ my mother” instead of Standard English “She isn’t my mother”, or “I ain’ got anything” instead of Standard English “I haven’t got anything”. 28. Multiple negation or negative concord: this feature consists on “negating the auxiliary verb and all indefinite pronouns in the sentence, as in “He don’ do nothing” for Standard English “He doesn’t do anything” (Rickford, 1999, p.8). This feature is very representative of AAVE. 29. Negative inversion: this feature consists on the inversion of the auxiliary and the indefinite pronoun subject. This rule is related with the previous one (see number 27 above), since negative inversion usually involves the multiple negation of the auxiliary and of the indefinite pronoun. Rickford (1999, p.8) provides several prototypical examples of this feature: “Can’t nobody say nothing” (inverted from “Nobody can’t say nothing”) for Standard English “Nobody can say anything”, or “Ain’t nobody home” (from “Nobody ain’t home”) for Standard English “Nobody is home”. 30. Use of ain’t but and don’t but for “only”: this feature is very representative of AAVE. Some examples of it are, for instance, “She ain’t but a teenager” instead of Standard English “She is only a teenager” or “They don’t want but your money” instead of Standard English “They only want your money”. 31. Direct questions without the inversion of the subject and auxiliary verb: the formation of direct question without inversion of the subject and the auxiliary verb is very common in AAVE. Rickford (1999, p.8) provides clear examples of this: “Why I can’t play?” for Standard English “Why can’t I play?” and “They didn’t take it” for Standard English “Didn’t they take it?” African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 23 3.3 Lexicon African American Vernacular English’s lexicon is full of unique words and expressions that turn it into a very colourful, dynamic and representative one. This lexicon is common to all African-American people, which means that, instead of finding variation among different social classes, different ages or different sexes as it happens for instance with African American Vernacular English’s grammar or phonology, in the case of the lexicon we find variation among different sub-communities, as Mufwene et al. (1998) highlight in: The lexicon of the Black speech community crosses boundaries – sex, age, religion, social class, region. That is, the Black lexicon is comprised of idioms, phrases, terms, and other linguistic contributions from various sub-communities within the larger African-American community. (p.205) In order to understand the meaning of African American Vernacular English’s lexicon, one must pay attention to African American’s history and try to understand why and how the African-American community creates its own way of using the English language. Regarding this, one must take into account race as the main connection among African-Americans and as the main motivation they found to create their own variety. The main feature of African American Vernacular English’s lexicon is that it was developed by giving a different meaning to English words, what is called the “semantic inversion” that consists on turning the meaning of words into their opposites. Some examples of this are: the use of bad meaning “good”, stupid meaning “excellent”, or dope meaning “very good or superb” (Mufwene et al., 1998, p.216). This practice of turning words into their opposites has its roots in slavery, when slaves tried to create their own system of communication that only they could understand. This is very similar to what the African-American community tried to do creating their own way of using the English language. We can find an instance of the importance of the past in order to understand the lexicon of this variety in the name that the famous film-maker Spike Lee gave to his production company: Forty Acres and a Mule. This is a Black expression related to the nineteenth century and to the concept of “five states” that the Republic of New Africa created. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 30 This change in the situation and the fact that we are analysing the same character will make possible to conclude if there is any kind of accommodation in this scene, if the African American Vernacular English’s features that we have found in fragment 3 when he talks with a young man from the ghetto remain in this scene in which he talks with a white policeman. Character: Detective William Bunk. 4.3 Analysis of the fragments 4.3.1 Fragment 1: season one, episode one (1x01, min. 37-39). In this dialogue, one can find several distinctive features of African American Vernacular English. The following ones are some examples of the phonological features: 1. Realization of voiceless th [ϴ] as t or f (see section 3.1, number 5): we can find one examples of this feature in the selected dialogue, which is, the pronunciation of the word “thing” in the sentence “Somebody snapping pictures, they got the whole damn thing”, where the th [ϴ] is pronounced as [t]. (1/1) 2. Realization of final ng as n in gerunds (see section 3.1, number 4): we can find this feature in several examples throughout this dialogue, for instance: “Somebody snapping pictures” in which the ng of the verb “snapping” is pronounced as [n], or “See what I’m saying” in which the ng of the verb “saying” is pronounced as [n], or “I’m trying to give you a little game” in which the ng o the verb “trying” is pronounced as [n] also. (5/7) 3. Deletion or vocalization of post vocalic /l/ (see section 3.1, number 6): we can find this feature in the question “All right?” If we pay attention to the pronunciation of these two words one might realize that the final “ll” of “all” is deleted. (1/1) 4. Deletion or vocalization of /r/ after a vowel (see section 3.1, number 7): this feature can be also identified in the previous example, the question “All right?” As a consequence of the deletion of “ll” (see number 2 of this section), the /r/ of the word “right” comes after a vowel and because of this it is also deleted. Moreover, as it has been previously explained (see section 3.1, number 7), the deletion of /r/ after a vowel my carry the grammatical effect of the use of they for the Standard English possessive “their” as it happens in the following example of this dialogue: “You can't serve your customers straight up after taking they money”. (3/5) African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 31 5. Monophthongal pronunciations of ay and oy (see section 3.1, number 10): we can find several examples of this feature in the dialogue, for instance, in the pronunciation of ah for Standard English “I” as in “I mean, I don't know how you do shit up in the towers” or in the pronunciation of boah for Standard English “boy” as in “You gonna fall out slamming that shit like that one of these days, boy”. (3/4) In this dialogue, one can also easily identify several grammatical features very characteristic of African American Vernacular English; the following ones are all the examples that we can find in this dialogue: 6. Absence of copula is and are for present tense states and actions (see section 3.2, number 14): in this fragment we can find clear examples of this feature as in the sentence “You Ø off the money” in which the copula are is deleted, or the question “That Ø it?” in which the copula is is also deleted. (3/4) 7. Use of invariant be: a. To indicate habitual aspect or habitual actions (see section 3.2, number 15a): we can find an example of this in the sentence “Money be green”. The use of habitual “be” in this series is something predictable since this feature “is more common in urban than in rural areas” (see Rickford 1999: 325). (2/2) b. To indicate the future form “will be” (see section 3.2, number 15b): as in the sentence “Your ass be out on the bottom end of Vine street”. (1/1) 8. Use of unstressed been or bin for Standard English’s present perfect form (see section 3.2, number 17): we can find one example of this feature in this dialogue, which is, “Y'all niggers been burnt”. (1/1) 9. Absence of third person singular present tense –s (see section 3.2, number 21): we can find a very clear example of this feature in the selected dialogue since this feature is one of the most representative of African American Vernacular English: “This shit happenØ again”. (4/4) 10. Generalization of is and was with plural and second person subjects (see section 2.2, number 20): as in the example that we can find in this fragment “Nigger, is you crazy?” (1/1) African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 32 11. Use of y’all and they as possessives (see section 3.2, number 25): in the dialogue that we are analysing we can find several examples of this feature, as “You can't serve your customers straight up after taking they money” in which they is used instead of “their”. (2/3) 12. Use of ain’(t) as negator instead of Standard English “am not”, “isn’t”, “aren’t”, “hasn’t”, “haven’t”, and “didn’t” (see section 3.2, number 27): this feature is very common in African American Vernacular English, and, as a consequence, we have several examples of it in this dialogue as, “That shit ain't money” where ain’t is used instead of Standard English “isn’t”, or “He ain't no president” where the same happens. (5/7) 13. Multiple negation or negative concord (see section 3.2, number 28): this is another representative feature of African American Vernacular English. In the dialogue that we are analysing we can find several examples of this as, “He ain't no president”, or “Ain't no ugly-ass white man get his face on no legal motherfucking tender except he president”. (4/5) 14. In this dialogue that we are analysing, there are also non-standard grammatical features that have not been previously explained in section 3.2, as there are not present in the main descriptive sources analysed for this paper. One example of this type of feature is the formation of questions without any kind of auxiliary, as in “Ø You hear me?” where the auxiliary “do” is elided, or in “What Ø you mean?” where the same happens. These features are common to several varieties and very frequent in colloquial spoken language. (8/8) 4.3.2 Fragment 2: season one, episode three (1x03, min. 4-7). Throughout the analysis of this fragment, I have found that most of the relevant features of African American Vernacular English are not present. Regarding phonology, the only feature that can be clearly appreciated is the reduction of word-final consonant clusters (see section 3.1, number 1). But this feature, as has been already explained in that section, occurs in the majority of varieties of English, so, even though it is more frequent in African American Vernacular English than in other varieties, it is not a distinctive feature of it. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 33 An example of reduction of word-final consonant clusters in this fragment could be the sentence: “Three witnesses' statements all of them saying the officer's assault on the youth was unprovoked” in which a reduction of the word-final consonant clusters of the word “assault” and of the verb “unprovoked” is produced. (5/18) In the case of the grammar, it is important to comment on the following sentence: “Sir, I would request that pending the grand jury review Officer Pryzbylewski be placed on administrative leave”, in which the use of be may look like habitual be (see section 3.2, number 15a), but it is in fact, an instance of so-called “mandatory subjunctive”, a typical feature of Standard American English. 4.3.3 Fragment 3: season one, episode two (1x02, min. 26-28). 4.3.3.1 Policeman’s dialogue: in this part of the fragment we can find several phonological African American Vernacular English’s features: 1. Reduction of word-final consonant clusters (see section 3.1, number 1): we can find examples of this feature in the pronunciation of verbs like “killed” or “worked”. (3/4) 2. Realization of final ng as [n] in gerunds (see section 3.1, number 4): examples of this feature in this part of the dialogue are gerunds like “driving”, “going”, “crying”, and “lighting”. (4/4) 3. Deletion of unstressed initial and medial syllables (see section 3.1, number 8): we can see an example of this when the policeman pronounces ‘cause instead of Standard English “because”. This feature is very frequent in spoken language and, as a result, it is important to highlight that it is considered to be present in many English varieties, not only in AAVE. (1/1) 4. Monophthongal pronunciations of ay and oy (see section 3.1, number 10): the sentence “I know he don't believe it”, in which “I” is pronounced as [ah] is an example of this feature. (1/1) In those parts of the dialogue where the policeman speaks one can also easily identify the following grammatical African American Vernacular English’s features: 5. Absence of copula is and are for present tense states and actions (see section 3.2, number 14): we can see an example of this feature in the questions “You Ø sorry? You Ø sorry for him?” in which the copula “are” is elided. (2/2) African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 34 6. Absence of third person singular present tense –s (see section 3.2, number 21): in those parts of this dialogue spoken by the policemen we can find a clear example of this feature: “I know he don't believe it”, where don’t is used instead of Standard English “doesn’t”. (1/2) 7. Use of ain’(t) as negator (see section 3.2, number 27): the sentence “if you weren't so busy lighting folks up in high-rise lobby he ain't coming out of the elevator and see it happen” that the policemen pronounce and in which ain’t is used instead of Standard English “hasn’t”, is clear example of this feature. (1/2) 4.3.3.2 Young man’s dialogue: in this part of the dialogue we can only find the following phonological feature as the young African-American man does not speak so much in this dialogue: 8. Monophthongal pronunciations of ay and oy (see section 3.1, number 10): we can find several examples of this feature in the fragments where the young man speaks, as in the sentence “I got nothing to say” or in “I mean, I'm sorry for the man, but I ain't got nothing to say” in which “I” is pronounced as [ah]. (4/4) Moreover, we can find the following grammatical features: 9. Absence of copula is and are for present tense states and actions (see section 3.2, number 14): the question “Where Ø my lawyer at?” in which the copula “is” is elided, is clear example this feature. (1/1) 10. Use of ain’(t) as negator (see section 3.2, number 27): as in the sentence “I ain't got nothing to say” in which ain’t is used for Standard English “haven’t”. (1/2) 11. Multiple negation or negative concord (see section 3.2, number 28): an example of this feature in the dialogue that we are analysing could be the sentence ““I ain't got nothing to say”, in which both the auxiliary verb and the indefinite pronoun are present in their negative forms. (2/2) African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 35 4.3.4 Fragment 4: season one, episode four (1x04, min. 12-15). Throughout the analysis of this fragment, I have found that most of the African American Vernacular English features are not present. Regarding phonological features, one can only perceive the realization of final ng as [n] in gerunds (see section 3.1, number 4), as it is the case of the sentence “He's supposed to be down here helping us, anyway” in which the final ng of the verb “helping” is pronounced as [n]. Concerning grammar, there is no presence of any grammatical feature characteristic of African American Vernacular English. 4.4 Discussion of the fragments In part 4.3 we have analysed four different fragments or scenes which belong to the first season of the popular TV series entitled The Wire. The main purpose of this analysis is to compare the use of African American Vernacular English mainly in people who belong to different social classes and to conclude if, as a result of this, there is any kind of accommodation among them. The following tables will help us to organize the main results of this analysis: Character Voiceless th [ϴ] as t or f Final ng as n in gerunds Deletion or vocalization of post vocalic /l/ Deletion or vocalization of /r/ after a vowel Monophthongal pronunciations of ay and oy Reduction of wordfinal consonant clusters Deletion of unstressed initial and medial syllables D’Angelo F1 1/1 5/7 1/1 3/5 3/4 Ø Ø F3 Ø Ø Ø Ø 4/4 Ø Ø Bunk F3 Ø 4/4 Ø Ø 1/1 3/4 1/1 F4 Ø 1/1 Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Daniels F2 Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø 2/4 Ø Burrel F2 Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø 3/14 Ø African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 36 Table 2. Enumeration of the different phonological features found in the dialogues, classified by the number of times that each feature is repeated in the dialogue, in contrast with the total number of cases in which we could find that feature in the fragment and also, by the name of the different characters whose dialects contain those features. Character Absence of copula is and are Use of invariant be Use of unstressed been or bin Absence of third person singular present tense –s Generalization of is and was Use of y’all and they as possessives Use of ain’(t) as negator Multiple negation D’Angelo F1 3/4 3/3 1/1 4/4 1/1 2/3 5/7 4/5 F3 1/1 Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø 1/2 2/2 Bunk F3 2/2 Ø Ø 1/2 Ø Ø 1/2 Ø F4 0/2 Ø 0/1 0/2 Ø Ø Ø Ø Daniels F2 Ø 1/1 Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Burrel F2 Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Table 3. Enumeration of the different grammatical features found in the dialogues, classified by the number of times that each feature is repeated in the dialogue, in contrast with the total number of cases in which we could find that feature in the fragment and also, by the name of the different characters whose dialects contain those features *Note 1: the “F” of the abbreviations FI, F3 and F4 means “fragment” and the number makes reference to the number of the fragment analysed in order to identify it, so, for instance, F1 stances for “fragment one”. *Note 2: the symbol “Ø”, indicates that in the dialogue spoken by that character, there is no possible context in which that feature could be realized. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 37 The observation of the results classified in tables 2 and 3 enables us to conclude the following statements about the way in which these characters speak: 1. The first character who appears in the tables is D’Angelo Barksdale who, as it is already explained in part 4.2, is a young African-American man from the ghetto. He is present in two different dialogues (fragment1 and fragment 3), as a consequence of this and looking to the results obtained, we are going to conclude if there is any kind of accommodation or change from one fragment to the other in the way he speaks. In fragment 1, he is in the ghetto taking to other friends who also live there; moreover, they are all African American so it is expected to find, as the two tables (2 and 3) show, a lot of instances of African American Vernacular English’s features, both phonological and grammatical. In the second fragment in which D’Angelo appears (fragment 3), the situation changes a lot. He is now speaking with another African-American man but who in this case, is a policeman. The policeman is someone who belongs to a higher social class than him and, moreover, is a representative of the law, so maybe we would expect that, in this case, D’Angelo would try to moderate his use of African American Vernacular English since, as we have already explained in this paper, it is a stigmatized variety (see section 2.4.1). Despite of this, if we look tables 2 and 3, we realise that, we find African American Vernacular English’s features in all contexts in which an African American Vernacular English’s feature is possible to be produce. This leads us to the conclusion that, instead of trying to accommodate to the way in which a policeman is supposed to speak, the character of D’Angelo decides not to moderate his use of African American Vernacular English at all. 2. The second character that appears in tables 2 and 3 is the African-American policeman called Bunk. This character also appears in two of the four analysed fragments (fragment 3 and fragment4), so it will be also possible in this case to conclude is there is any kind of accommodation or change in the way he speaks from one fragment to the other. In fragment 3, he is talking to D’Angelo, interrogating him in order to obtain information. For this reason, and as a representative of the law, we may think that this African-American policeman would moderate the way in which he speaks African American Vernacular English in order to diverge from the way in which D’Angelo speaks and to show, as a result, his superiority and his authority. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 38 Moreover, we would also expect to find, in normal circumstances, less features of African American Vernacular English in someone who belongs to a higher social class (as is the case of Bunk) than in someone who belongs to a lower social class (as is the case of D’Angelo). Despite of this, if we pay attention to tables 2 and 3, we realise that, we find African American Vernacular English’s features in all contexts in which an African American Vernacular English’s feature is possible to be produce. Taking this information into account, we can conclude that this policeman tried to converge towards the way in which D’Angelo speaks, maybe in order to eliminate the social distance and to show proximity. In the second fragment in which Bunk appears (fragment 4), he is talking to a white policeman. Through the results obtained we can see how most of the features that he shows when he speaks with D’Angelo in fragment 3, now have disappeared (Absence of copula is and are, absence of third person singular present tense –s, etc). This reinforces the above explained idea that, in fragment 3, he converges towards the speech of D’Angelo, showing as a result, more instances of African American vernacular English features. 3. Finally, we are going to analyse the results of the last two characters (Daniels and Burrel) together, since they are both African-American policemen who appear in the same fragment talking to each other (see section 4.2). In both cases, we find very few instances of African American Vernacular English’s features, for example, in the case of the reduction of word-final consonant clusters, we only find 2 of the 4 possible cases in Daniels, and 3 of the 14 possible cases in Burrel. This is somehow expected since, when you see the series, you realise that these two policemen, in contrast with Bunk, are not in contact at all with people from the ghetto, and instead, they are more in contact with white commissioners and lawyers who belong to upper classes. This is because, instead of being mere policemen as is the case of Bunk, Daniels is a lieutenant and Burrel is a commissioner. Taking into account the information we get from the analysis of the different fragments of the TV series The Wire that have been commented below, we can reach the conclusion that there are more instances of African American Vernacular English’s features among people from the lower classes than among people from the middle and upper classes. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 39 This may have to do with the fact that, for people of the lower classes who, in this case, live in the ghetto, African American Vernacular English functions as a mark of identity, as a symbol of who they are, and as a consequence, they do not moderate at all their use of it and, in most cases they deliberately diverge from the way other people speak in order to mark even more that Black identity they deeply feel. Regarding African-American characters that belong to middle classes, as is the case of the policemen, we can see how, as a consequence of being constantly in contact with people from the ghetto, they find it very easy to converge towards the speech of them, even though in their daily life or talking to other policemen they show few instances of African American Vernacular English’s features. Finally, there are those policemen and lawyers who belong to upper classes and who, despite the fact of being African-Americans too, do not show African American Vernacular English’s features. This could be explained for the fact that they are not in contact at all with the lower classes which is the social group that shows more features of this variety, and, in addition, they are daily in contact with white people from the middle and upper classes, which emphasize even more this situation. 5. Conclusion Through the analysis of the different bibliographical and descriptive sources and after the reflexions and the analysis showed in this paper, I can clearly conclude that African American Vernacular English shows a very organized internal logic and that, as a consequence of this, it is a systematic variety with its own rules and norms as any other language variety. As Rickford (1999) says: “In short, the manner in which Ebonics differs from Standard English is highly ordered; it is not more lazy English than Italian is lazy Latin” (p. 323). Moreover, the study and analysis of the way in which different African-American characters of the TV series The Wire speak, has enabled us to observe the use of this variety within a determined social context. The results obtained lead us to the conclusion that, even though all the selected characters of the series speak African American Vernacular English, they do not do it in the same manner or with the same frequency. Variation is something present in this variety and it responds to several causes. African American Vernacular English: a study of the representation of black speech in popular TV series TFG 2015-2016 Joana Costas Domínguez Page 46 Bunk: We called him. When he comes, we'll let you know. D’Angelo: I got nothing to say.I mean, I'm sorry for the man, but I ain't got nothing to say. Bunk: You sorry? You sorry for him? You fucking killed the man. D’Angelo: No. Bunk: Yes, you did.We don't think that you shot him, but if you weren't so busy Iighting folks up in high-rise lobby he ain't coming out of the elevator and see it happen. McNulty: He don't see anything, he doesn't testify. He doesn't testify, those kids still got a daddy to lean on. D’Angelo: Why'd he testify? McNulty: How would we know? D’Angelo: He didn't have to testify. Bunk: No, he didn't, but he did.  Fragment 4: season one, episode four (1x04, min. 12-15). Bunk: Right? So, from all them hand-to-hands, nobody flipped? Bunk: How does this match with the rest of the Westside mopes? Bunk: He's got you, Jimmy. Bunk: Why don't you just dump this loser on Santangelo? He's supposed to be down here helping us, anyway. Bunk: What does Daniels have to say about that? Man, Keeley really dogged this one. Bunk: There's a callback number, though. Bunk: All right, motherfucker, he got me, too. So, I'm gonna call Verizon, see if they got a fresh listing.