Date:  Mon, 21 Nov 1994 12:51:28 -0600

From:  Natalie Maynor <maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]RA.MSSTATE.EDU>

Subject: Re: Recent Black English



>     I usually explain Habitual to students as involving two

> things: 1) repeated action (as in Sali's interpretation of the BE

> construction, which I gather he doesn't think IS habitual), and 2)

> lack of specificity. IE the speaker must be referring to something

> that happens more than once, and not referring to any particular case

> of it, if she is using a Habitual. Is that what others think it means?



That's what it means to me.



I just looked for the article with examples of a rural/urban split on

invariant "be" (in Texas) and found the reference: Bailey & Maynor.

1989. "The Divergence Controversy." American Speech 64.1: 12-39.

  --Natalie (maynor[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ra.msstate.edu)