Consider the descriptive rules concerning copular deletion in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as described by TikTok user @whatsgoodenglish in W1V4. According to his description, which of these sentences are predicted to be (descriptively) ungrammatical in AAVE? Select all that apply.

For the purposes of this question, the grammaticality/acceptability of sentences are not marked with an asterisk (*); your task is to figure out which of these sentences should have an * in front of it.

Question

Consider the descriptive rules concerning copular deletion in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as described by TikTok user @whatsgoodenglish in W1V4. According to his description, which of these sentences are predicted to be (descriptively) ungrammatical in AAVE? Select all that apply.

For the purposes of this question, the grammaticality/acceptability of sentences are not marked with an asterisk (*); your task is to figure out which of these sentences should have an * in front of it.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

First, let's restate the question and the options to ensure we know what's being evaluated.
Question: According to the TikTok description of copular deletion in AAVE, which sentences are predicted to be (descriptively) ungrammatical? Select all that apply. The two candidate sentences are:
- I 5ft tall
- I trying to fix it

Option 1: I 5ft tall. The core issue here is the lack of a copula (the form of 'to be') linking the subject I to the predicate adjective phrase '5ft tall.' In standard English, and in many dialects that fully realize the copula, we'd expect 'I am 5ft tall' (or, less formally, 'I'm 5ft tall'). If the rule being described is that copular deletion is possible in AAVE in certain environments but not in others, this sentence might be flagged as ungrammatical if the description specifies that omitting the copula before a predicative adjective like 'tall' in this position is not permitted. The reasoning hinges on whether deletion before adjectives of height is allowed; if the description maintains that such a deletion is not permitted in this context, then 'I 5ft tall' would be predicted ungrammatical.

Option 2: I trying to fix it. Here, the key point is the presence or absence of the auxiliary be in the progressive form. In many descriptions of AAVE copular or auxiliary deletion, the present participle construction requires an auxiliary (am/are/is) or some form of progressive marking; dropping the auxiliary in 'I am trying to fix it' to 'I trying to fix it' removes the auxiliary needed for the progressive aspect. If the TikTok description treats copular (be) deletion as applicable primarily to stative predicatives with adjectives or nominal predicates, but not to progressive verb forms without an auxiliary, then 'I trying to fix it' would be predicted ungrammatical. In other words, the required auxiliary before the -ing verb is absent, making the sentence ungrammatical under that description.

To summarize the rationale for each option, keeping in mind the described rule set: 1) I 5ft tall lacks the required copular form before the adjectival predicate, which may violate the specified allowance for copula deletion in this context; 2) I trying to fix it lacks the necessary auxiliary for the present progressive, which would typically be present in the description as a non-deleted copula/auxiliary context, thus predicting ungrammaticality.

Note: If the description allowed copular deletion before stative adjectives in AAVE more broadly, or permitted progressive forms without auxiliaries in casual speech, the judgments could differ. Since the provided answer indicates both sentences are ungrammatical under the described rules, the above reasoning aligns with those implications.

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