| Abstrakt: |
A modification of Berko’s test was used to explore the use of six morphological rules, as a function of age, by black children living in New York City. For each of the six morphological rules tested, black English and standard American English take different forms. These rules are for noun plurals, past tense, third person singular present tense, continuous action in the present, singular possessive, and plural possessive. A total of 90 children in five age groups tested (preschool, N = 12; kindergarten, N = 25; first grade, N = 27; fifth grade, N = 11; and eighth grade, N = 15). The results indicate that, in the presence of the one white examiner, the occurrence of basilect (black English forms) responses decreased while the occurrence of standard English responses increased as the age of the children increased. In no case, however, did even the oldest children use standard English responses to the exclusion of the alternate black English forms. |
