This book covers both the linguistic features of African-American English, in particular the grammar, phonology and lexicon, and the sociological, political and educational issues associated with it.

Salikoko Mufwene is Professor and Chair at the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. John R. Rickford is Professor of Linguistics and John Baugh is Professor of Education and Linguistics, both are at Stanford University. Guy Bailey is Dean of Liberal Arts at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Introduction 1. Some Aspects of African-American Vernacular English Guy Bailey and Erik Thomas 2. The Sentence in African-American Vernacular English Stefan Martin and Walt Wolfram 3. Aspect and Predicate Phrases in African-American Vernacular English Lisa Green 4. The Structure of the Noun Phrase in African-American English Salikoko S. Mufwene 5. Coexistent Systems in African-American English William Labov 6. The Development of African-American Vernacular English, Focusing on the Creole Origin Issue John R. Rickford 7. Word from the Hood: The Lexicon of African-American Vernacular English Geneva Smitherman 8. African-American Language Use: Ideology and So-Called Obscenity Arthur K. Spears 9. More than a Mood or an Attitude: Discourse and Verbal Genres in African-American Culture Marcyliena Morgan 10. Linguistics, Education, and the Law: Education Reform for African-American Language Minority Students John Baugh