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There's a sentence in the article that is a bit misleading (or at least unclear from the phrasing): "AAVE speakers use 'be' to mark a habitual grammatical aspe

There's a sentence in the article that is a bit misleading (or at least unclear from the phrasing): "AAVE speakers use 'be' to mark a habitual grammatical aspect not explicitly distinguished in Standard English." Standard American English does have explicit ways to mark habitual aspect[0], however it lacks one for the present tense (which is how habitual "be" is used in AAVE). Personally, I think Standard American English would benefit from adopting it. As an aside, I've never understood that joke about Clinton. Was it a reference to something in particular? [0] For example there is "used to" for the past tense, "would" for the past tense, "will" for an unspecified time, and a combined form with the present progressive: I used to go to the beach every day. I would often drink while lounging in the sun and get sunburnt. I will make the same mistake again I'm sure. Every time I do, I'm increasing my risk of skin cancer.

daveFNbuck 6y ago
> As an aside, I've never understood that joke about Clinton. Was it a reference to something in particular? It's a reference to his defense of saying he wasn't lying with the phrase "there's nothing going on between us" when questioned about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He explained that this was true because they were no longer seeing each other at the time of questioning, but the way he said it was striking. "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the—if he—if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement" I think it's easy to see why people would latch on to that and make jokes about it.
- eindiran 6y ago
  I meant the joke/comment about Clinton being the first black president. But I saw someone else link this, which seems to be the source: https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/08/toni-morrison-wasnt-giving-bill-clinton-a-compliment/402517/ https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/08/toni-morrison-wasn...

daveFNbuck 6y ago

> As an aside, I've never understood that joke about Clinton. Was it a reference to something in particular? It's a reference to his defense of saying he wasn't lying with the phrase "there's nothing going on between us" when questioned about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. He explained that this was true because they were no longer seeing each other at the time of questioning, but the way he said it was striking. "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the—if he—if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement" I think it's easy to see why people would latch on to that and make jokes about it.

eindiran 6y ago
I meant the joke/comment about Clinton being the first black president. But I saw someone else link this, which seems to be the source: https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/08/toni-morrison-wasnt-giving-bill-clinton-a-compliment/402517/ https://www.theatlantic.com/notes/2015/08/toni-morrison-wasn...