Libby Larsen has written three pieces for the bassoon as a featured solo instrument. These pieces are Jazz Variations for Solo Bassoon (1977), Concert Piece for Bassoon and Piano (2008) and full moon in the city (2013). This document examines the origin, style, and form of these works to provide performers further information. Highlighted is Larsen's use of American vernacular elements in the pieces. American vernacular in this document refers to the use of influences derived from American culture, music, and language.

Durant la guerre de Sécession (1861-1865), des milliers de soldats, de chaque côté du front, prirent leur plume afin de s'enquérir de leur famille et de donner des nouvelles du front. Généralement peu lettrés, la plupart de ces soldats ne maîtrisaient que très partiellement les codes de l'écrit. Le corpus sur lequel se base la présente recherche doctorale se compose de 366 lettres (soit environ 170 000 mots) rédigées par 80 soldats de première et deuxième classes originaires de Virginie. L'orthographe idiosyncratique et approximative de leurs écrits ainsi que les nombreuses variations morphosyntaxiques non standard permettent de mieux saisir ce que pouvait être le vernaculaire des locuteurs blancs issus des couches les plus basses de la société virginienne durant la première moitié du XIXe siècle.Selon Guy Bailey (1997), certaines caractéristiques du vernaculaire du Sud des Etats-Unis (Southern American English) seraient apparues après la guerre de Sécession et seraient le fruit d'une réaction identitaire face à la domination du Nord et à l'humiliation causée par la défaite. Les variations non standard répertoriées dans le Virginia Civil War Corpus nous invitent à nuancer cette assertion. Malgré une orthographe phonétique et l'emploi de nombreuses variations morphosyntaxiques et lexicales non standard, leurs écrits révèlent la tension constante entre le registre paritaire et disparitaire. Cette perpétuelle oscillation est-elle le fruit d'un conflit interne entre différents modèles linguistiques ou est-elle, au contraire, le signe d'opérations énonciatives spécifiques ? / Throughout the Civil War (1861-1865), thousands of low ranking soldiers on both sides of the conflict took up their pens to inquire after their families and give news from the front. Usually semiliterate, most of these soldiers were far from mastering written conventions. The 170,000-word corpus, on which this thesis is based, is composed of 366 letters written by 80 privates, corporals and sergeants from Virginia. Their idiosyncratic and ingenuous spellings as well as their use of non-standard morphosyntactic variations offer a great opportunity to gain further insight into the vernacular spoken by white lower-class people in Virginia around the middle of the 19th century.According to Guy Bailey (1997), certain specificities of the Southern American Vernacular English (SAVE) appeared after the Civil War, as a reaction against Northern domination and the humiliation caused by the defeat. The non standard variations found in the Virginia Civil War Corpus tend to question this hypothesis and reveal that most of the features, that are today associated with SAVE, were already present in low ranking soldiers' writings.Despite the phonetic spelling and the use of non-standard grammatical and lexical forms, the letters reveal that the soldiers were fully aware that their vernacular speech was not in line with academic conventions. We thus observe a constant tension between the academic prescriptive norm and non-standard variations. We may wonder if this constant oscillation is only triggered by an internal conflict between different linguistic models or if, on the contrary, the presence of these dialectal variations must be understood as signs of specific enunciative operations.

Das Thema dieser Arbeit bearbeitet die Schwierigkeit der Übersetzung von Soziolekten, genauer mit der Übersetzung von African American Vernacular English in die deutsche Sprache. Der 1983 erschienene Roman „The Color Purple“ von Alice Walker, der als Briefroman aus der Sicht einer jungen Afroamerikanerin verfasst ist, wird mit Hinblick auf die Verwendung und Übersetzungen von Soziolekten im Mittelpunkt der Analyse stehen. Da Non-standardvarietäten individueller und sozial bzw. kulturell anders markiert sind, sind sie in ihrer linguistischen Gesamtheit, also auf der syntaktischen, semantischen sowie pragmatischen Ebene, schwieriger greifbar und eine adäquate und präzise Übersetzung ist komplizierter zu erreichen. Es wird untersucht in wie fern die Übersetzungen die gesellschaftliche Debatte und den Umgang mit nonstandardvarietäten (der sich sehr gewandelt hat) widerspiegeln. Dabei sollen aus dem Gesamtkorpus Passagen, die exemplarisch das African American Vernacular English aufzeigen, einander gegenübergestellt werden. Dadurch soll durch die Erarbeitung soziolektalen Markierung die Wirkung der Aussagen in dem Originaltext und den Übersetzungen miteinander verglichen werden. Zum einen mit Hinblick auf die Äquivalenz und zum anderen mit Hinblick auf die spezifische Geschichte der Nonstandardvarietät African American Vernacular English.:1. Einleitung und Anliegen…………………………………………………………………3
 2. Nonstandardvarietäten und Soziolekte in der Sprachwissenschaft……………………...6 2.1. Black (Vernacular) English und African American Vernacular English…………..….8 2.2. Soziolekte in der Übersetzungswissenschaft…………………………………………11
3. Rezeption von „The Color Purple“ in der Literaturwissenschaft………………………17
4. Analyseansatz…………………………………………………………………………..26
 4.1. Celies Sprache im Originaltext………………………………………………….……27 4.2. Charakteristika von AAVE im Originaltext………………………………….………28 5. Die deutschen Übersetzungen von „The Color Purple“…………………….………….35 5.1. Die deutsche Übersetzung von 1984…………………………………………………36 5.2. Die deutsche Übersetzung von 2021…………………………………………………38 6. Vergleichende Gegenüberstellung der drei Fassungen ………………………………..40 6.1. Fingierte Mündlichkeit……………………………………………………………….40 6.2. Systematik und Aufhebung der zeitlichen Trennung…………………………………42 6.3. Soziokulturelle Faktoren……………………………………………………………...45 7. Fazit……………………………………………………………………………………..50 / The topic of this thesis deals with the difficulty of translating sociolects, more precisely with the translation of African American Vernacular English into German. The novel 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker, which was published in 1983 and is written as an epistolary novel from the perspective of a young African American woman, will be the focus of the analysis with regard to the use and translation of sociolects. Since non-standard varieties are more individual and socially or culturally marked differently, they are more difficult to grasp in their linguistic totality, i.e. on the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic level, and an adequate and precise translation is more complicated to achieve. The extent to which the translations reflect the social debate and the treatment of non-standard varieties (which has changed considerably) will be examined. Passages from the entire corpus that exemplify African American Vernacular English will be juxtaposed. The aim is to compare the effect of the statements in the original text and the translations by working out sociolectal markings. On the one hand with regard to equivalence and on the other hand with regard to the specific history of the non-standard variety of African American Vernacular English.:1. Einleitung und Anliegen…………………………………………………………………3
 2. Nonstandardvarietäten und Soziolekte in der Sprachwissenschaft……………………...6 2.1. Black (Vernacular) English und African American Vernacular English…………..….8 2.2. Soziolekte in der Übersetzungswissenschaft…………………………………………11
3. Rezeption von „The Color Purple“ in der Literaturwissenschaft………………………17
4. Analyseansatz…………………………………………………………………………..26
 4.1. Celies Sprache im Originaltext………………………………………………….……27 4.2. Charakteristika von AAVE im Originaltext………………………………….………28 5. Die deutschen Übersetzungen von „The Color Purple“…………………….………….35 5.1. Die deutsche Übersetzung von 1984…………………………………………………36 5.2. Die deutsche Übersetzung von 2021…………………………………………………38 6. Vergleichende Gegenüberstellung der drei Fassungen ………………………………..40 6.1. Fingierte Mündlichkeit……………………………………………………………….40 6.2. Systematik und Aufhebung der zeitlichen Trennung…………………………………42 6.3. Soziokulturelle Faktoren……………………………………………………………...45 7. Fazit……………………………………………………………………………………..50

The language children bring to the classroom (home language) is often different from the language that is expected or accepted in schools. These language differences are often met with a variety of reactions from teachers. The purpose of this research is threefold: (a) to apply a narrative inquiry design to explore how teachers respond to the language that children bring (home language) to the early childhood classroom and the effects this response has on their work with children; (b) to engage in research efforts that will explore how differences in language may affect or be affected by pedagogy, curriculum development, and teachers' expectations; (c) to understand how teachers feel about their preparation and capacity to address the issue of language diversity. The 4 participants in this study are either current or former teachers of children between the ages of 4 to 8 years. Through the use of narrative inquiry, I have acquired stories from each of the 4 participants. The stories provide insight into these teachers' perceptions of children's language in the classroom. The stories also open discussions on language diversity and the role it plays in early childhood education classrooms as well as how prepared teachers are to deal with language differences. With this study I hope to contribute to the research that focuses on language and language diversity in early childhood education. I would also hope to prompt further research on issues such as teachers' approaches to children's language differences within the classroom, the affects of different approaches to language diversity on pedagogy and curriculum, and finally on culturally sensitive pedagogy.

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abstract: Due to the limits of Arizona's secondary education system, English teachers often have to teach Standard English without regard for students' dialects and home languages. This can contribute to a lack of academic success for students who speak nonstandard and stigmatized language varieties. During the discussions that appear in this thesis, I examine pedagogical practices, particularly bidialectalism, that can be used to better teach these students. While these practices can apply to students of all languages and dialects, I focus on their effects on speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). I also present some ways that educators can be better prepared to teach such students. I conclude with some practical applications, lessons, and activities that teachers in similar contexts can use and modify. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis English 2014

The purpose of this study is to investigate how the spoken variety African-American VernacularEnglish (AAVE) is used in entertainment. This is performed by comparing the spoken language oftwo fictional characters from two different sources of entertainment who are depicted as AAVEspeakers. The characters selected for the study are Stringer Bell from the TV-series The Wire andMama Odie from the movie The Princess and the Frog. Since the aim of this study is to compare andmeasure frequency of use of AAVE features amongst the two characters, a quantitative analysis hasbeen conducted. The findings show that the characters use similar features of AAVE but not to thesame extent. The results show that both characters use verb phrases, negations, and nominals. Theresults show that the characters have 6 grammatical features and 5 phonological features in commonin the selected material, where Stringer Bell uses more grammatical features and Mama Odie usesmore phonological features. Moreover, the results show that the depiction of the characters’ spokenlanguage varies due to the aim of the specific production and that the spoken language of the twocharacters is also affected by regional differences. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur den talade varianten afroamerikansk engelska (AAVE)används i underhållning. Detta utförs genom att jämföra det talade språket från två fiktivakaraktärer från två väldigt olika underhållningskällor där karaktärerna talar AAVE. Karaktärernasom är valda för studien är karaktären Stringer Bell från TV-serien The Wire och karaktären MamaOdie från filmen Prinsessan och grodan. Eftersom syftet med denna studie är att jämföra och mätafrekvensen av användandet av AAVE-funktioner mellan de två karaktärerna har en kvantitativinnehållsanalys tillämpats för detta ändamål. För att sammanfatta så använder sig karaktärerna avliknande särdrag men inte till samma utsträckning. Resultaten visar att båda karaktärerna användersig av verbfraser, negationer och nominaler. Resultaten visar att karaktärerna har 6 grammatiskafunktioner och 5 fonologiska särdrag gemensamt i det valda materialet, där Stringer Bells främstanvänder sig av grammatiska funktioner och Mama Odie använder främst fonologiska särdrag.Dessutom visar resultaten att skildringen av karaktärernas talade språk varierar beroende påproduktionens syfte. Följaktligen visar detta att det talade språket för de två karaktärerna också ärpåverkade av regionala varianter.

An analysis of the names and violence in Richard Wright's The Outsider reveals Wright's aesthetic program for the novel. Wright's recurring themes and the meanings of the name and aliases of his protagonist are indicative of African American vernacular tradition. Despite Wright's physical distance from African American life in the United States at the time of the novel's writing, he still conveys a strong connection to the African American experience, linking that experience with the suffering of all oppressed people. By using the idea of double-consciousness and various forms of signification, including masking, naming, and improvisation, Wright locates his work within the African American folk tradition and celebrates the freedom and subversive nature of African American expression.

Tupac Amaru Shakur was a successful African American musician, poet, and actor most renowned for tackling controversial subject matters in his music as well as using it as a platform to highlight his political opinions and social activism. Tupac used African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in his music. AAVE is a form of English, with its own unique vocabulary, typically spoken in urban communities and historically rooted in the American South. The aim of this study is to analyse how Tupac uses language to represent the voiceless America. This research essay focuses on answering two sub-questions. First, what topics/discourses does Tupac rap about in the song Changes and second, how is language used to represent these topic/discourses? Changes, one of Tupac's most prominent song, is studied in a qualitative discourse analysis where AAVE (African American Vernacular English) is in the focus. Also, a minor study is presented in three different tables to compare AAVE words with Standard American (SAE). The results of this study indicate that AAVE in Tupac's music is purposeful, plays a strong role in his persona, presentation, and can be linked to his political activism. In conclusion, through analyzing Changes, this essay illustrates several examples on how Tupac uses linguistic features to explore several themes and highlight the African American struggle in his society.

John Rickford (1990) states that “80%-90% of African Americans speak some form of Black English”, also known as “Ebonics” or “African American Vernacular English” (AAVE). In 1996, when the Oakland School Board proposed its resolution designating Ebonics as their students’ primary language, many African Americans outright rejected the School Board’s reference and description of their language (Smitherman, 2000, 150). Among them were Baby boomers (1940-1960s), who participated in the debates, and the Generation X’ers, (1960s-1980s), who were informed by the debates. A recent interview of members from both groups show that there is continued skepticism regarding the legitimacy of Ebonics as a language. Their resistance offers much to learn about intergroup relations and conflict. This research explores these components of group identity by examining the in-group language responses to the question of whether Ebonics, AAVE, or Black English is a language.