Emic Perspective On African American Vernacular English
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INTRODUCTION
The “emic” and “etic” are two ways of perceiving a system of beliefs and behaviours “Emic” accounts for the culture in which one belongs, while “etic” considers a different culture. For the emic view, the culture is taken from an outsider's perspective, whereas for the etic view, the object of analysis is taken from an insider's perspective. I chose to write an emic perspective on African American communication, specifically about the African American Vernacular English or AAVE. Secondly, I chose to express an etic view about the Japanese rites of passage to death and the afterlife or JRPD. The AAVE and JRPD reflect the innate human longing to revere our origins.
Our origins are believed to be the anchor of our identity and ultimate…show more content… The social status was sustained for a long time through systematic segregation. The first wave of blacks who had their own language from their point of origin had to learn English informally. They were not admitted to the schools where whites obtain their education. Generations and generations after the first wave, the blacks culture became more strongly integrated with the way they speak English. While segregation was instituted as a way to maintain the social hierarchy, it also contributed to the gradual emergence of a distinct…show more content… Illustrating the statistical relationship in the rate of copula omission between AAVE speakers in the US and the Caribbean creole speakers, the link is established. The existence of the Afro-Caribbean ancestors of today's African-Americans in a warm climate reveals the emic perspective of connecting copula absence to laziness. The practice of JRPD reveals the value of attachment in the Japanese culture. Ritualization of death and the afterlife is seen as a way of extending the household, which takes centre stage in the Japanese culture. The notion of “shizenso” also blurs the boundaries between the living and the dead. Hence, from the etic perspective, death is viewed as a transformation to the afterlife. The belief in the afterlife exactly corresponds to the extension of the household. I have learned that cultures have different reasons to express beliefs and traditions. The African-Americans express it through the way they communicate in English. The Japanese express their belief in the continuity of life through their reverence of dead