A Lexical Analysis of Rap Music in African American English

【Abstract】： As one of the most prevalent music forms in present-day culture， rap music has caused great influence in daily life and communication of American teenagers. The most important feature in rap music is African American English （AAE） which is different from standard English. The thesis discuss the usage of AAE in rap songs in a context of sociolinguistics.

【Key words】： rap song lyrics； African American English；；rap slangs；sociolinguistics

I. Introduction

As the most popular music form in the modern music culture. Rap is simple with strong rhythm， the key point is exactly the lyrics， which has to undertake the responsibility to express and deliver the sentiment. African American English is well utilized in lyrics of rap music with the frequent usage of rap slangs， it has caused a great influence in language with its unique characteristics of creation， succinctness and freedom.

Ⅱ. Linguistic features of rap lyrics

The changes from standard English in rap song lyrics reflect in many aspects. This chapter will summarize the rap song’s linguistic features from the angle of spelling， grammatical and lexical .

2.1 Spelling features

2.1.1 Ellipsis.The reason why rap sounds so fascinating is that strong rhyme and fierce tones helps a lot. As a result， rappers have to make some syllables disappeared so as to achieve the fluency of the song. （1）.the changes of “-ing” eg.The final “ing” often change to “in”. （2）. The changes of \"pronoun\" eg.Rap slang tends to shorten pronouns， and usually use “em” instead of “them”.

2.1.2 Liaison.In rap music， liaison is most commonly used when a word ending with a consonant happens to meet a word starting with a vowel. The so-called \"liaison\" between the words or phrases is naturally taken by all the rappers. （Loflin，1975： 73）. （1）.The changes of \"to\".eg. In rap lyrics， “to” is used in different forms when combining with different verbs， however， it is often changed to the form which end with “-a”. eg. “Try to” is used as “tryna”. （2）. The change of “of ”. eg. The most frequently word appears in rap music is “outta” for “outof”. （3）. The change of \"have\". There always \"-a\" adding to would， could， must， should. They often appeared in rap with the form of woulda， coulda and shoulda. （4）. The change of \"you all\".“Y'all” is used as curtail for “you all”（5）.The words ending with \"er\" are always shortened \"er\" to \"a\". Nigger change to nigga， gangster change to gangsta， motherfucker change to mothafucka （6）. Because is commonly shortened to cuz （7）. “Don't know” is shorten to “dunno”（8）.The phrase “come on” is often shortened as “c'mon” in Rap lyrics.

2.1.3 Substitution.There are some high frequency words which different from general English words. Those words are substituted by Arabic numerals owing to these syllables have the same pronunciation with Arabic numerals. For example， “2” instead of “two”， “4” instead of “for”. “G” can be used to denote Ganstar， and sex， it also refer to firearms.

2.1.4 Onomatopoeia. it refers to the use of word which phonetically sound like the noise they make it （Eschholz，1990：34）.The frequent examples involves animal noises such as “hizz”， “buzz”， “meow” or “rat-a-tat-tat”. so as to caused a lively effect and stress or reinforce meaning.

2.2 Grammatical features

2.2.1 the usage of “be” .It can be assumed that not all the rappers can be familiar with all the changing forms of the verb， so they only use be， been， is and was to instead of the verbal forms .

2.2.2 the usage of”do” .. The agreement between person and verb doesn’t happen in rap music， The rule of it has been changed. Use of ‘done’ to emphasize the complete nature of an action

2.2.3 The usage of \"Negation.Use of ain'（t） as a general preverbal negator， it means \"am not，\" \"isn't\"，\"aren't\"， \"hasn't\"， \"haven't\" and \"didn't\".

2.2.4 the usage of “double negation”. It is also the general usage not only in African American English in rap lyrics， but in American standard English.

2.3 Lexical features

When listening to the Rap music， there always are some swearwords into your ears. Those swearwords can cause negative influence on society， however， they still use it in rap music.， the swearwords and misogynistic words will be detailed analyzed as follow.

2.3.1 Swearwords. In rap music， swearwords has become an necessary mark. It express the dissatisfaction and anger to the mainstream society by irritative or fierce diction.One of the high frequency used word is “fuck”. “Shit” “Motherfucka”，”Damn”.

2.3.2. Misogyny in rap music. Misogyny is not a respected way to represent woman. In Rap music， women （specifically African American women） are regard as not huam being just objects---objects that are only good for （AdmanFuller， 2006：33）.sex and abuse and are ultimately a burden to men .Bitches and hoe is often in the name of woman .

Ⅲ. Conclusion

Words and phrases became more and more concise and direct， grammatical rules were omited a lot， all of these keep the rule of “as simple as possible”， and it has became a trend that African American English become more and more prevalent in modern culture and black culture with its unique features. we can see that the popularity of rap music make African American English maintain and pass on the whole time.

References

[1]AdmanFuller. 2006. Why white kids love Hip-Hop. Basic Civitas Books.

[2]BeckmanJanette.1991. Rap： portraits and lyrics of a generation of Black rockers.New York：St. Martin's Press.

[3]Eschholz， Paul （ed）.1990. Language Awareness. St. Martin's Press. New York.

[4]Robinette， Richard.Pasqua， Thomas.1993. Historical Perspectives in Popular Music （3nd edn）. Kendall/ Hunt Publishing Company.

作者簡介：劉雪瑩，1993年11月10日出生，女，漢族，陜西省寶雞市人，現就讀于西安外國語大學英文學院研究生院2016級翻譯學專業。主要研究方向：翻譯理論與實踐。