ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE BEHAVIOUR IN RAP SUBCULTURE

In our study we undertook the analysis of authentic samples of the language of the representatives of the so called rap culture. First of all it is necessary to point out that rap culture is identified with a specific music genre which is the defining characteristic around which the subculture was formed. Rap music is one of the elements of hip hop; it is a form of rhyming lyrics spoken rhythmically over musical instruments, with a musical backdrop of sampling, scratching and mixing by DJs.

Rapping began as a variation on the toasting found in reggae and dub music, mixed with influences from radio DJs and playing the dozens. In the mid-1980s, rap became increasingly politicized. Rap is now seen as a subculture that includes a large number of middle to upper white class youths, has grown to support and appreciate rap music. Many youth in America today are considered part of the rap subculture because they share a common love for a type of music that combines catchy beats with rhythmic music and thoughtful lyrics to create songs with a distinct political stance. Rap lyrics are about the problems rappers have seen, such as poverty, crime, violence, racism, poor living conditions, drugs, alcoholism, and corruption.

Now let us consider samples of authentic speech acts from the feature movies “8 Mile” (about a white rapper, Rabbit by name, and the problems he faces being among a black rap community) and “Bulworth” (about a white Senator of California Jay Billington Bulworth who finds himself in a club for black rappers only where he learns to rhyme and to rap, gets interested in the problems of the black community and starts to communicate with a black girl). We will also use for the purpose of our analysis the American youth magazine “Teen Scene” dealing with problems and interests of African-American urban youth.

(1) On the syntactic level, we can notice a great number of elliptical constructions:

E. g.: -If you were not acting what else would you want to do?

-Probably go to school and become a lawyer.[18, p. 18]

E. g.: -What do you do for fun?

-Hang out with my friends, go shopping. [18, p. 18]

E. g.: -Are you dating yet?

-I am allowed to, but I am not dating anyone. [18, p. 18]

(2) In terms of grammar, the following peculiarities are typical of the language of rap subculture:

¨ Many speakers do not have –s in third-person singular present-tense forms, so that forms such as he go, it come, she like are usual.

¨ Another important grammatical characteristic is the absence of the verb to be in the present tense. In Black English, as in Russian and many other languages the following type of sentence is grammatical:

E. g.: She real nice. [11, p. 55]

They out there. [11, p. 55]

¨ The use of the form be as a finite verb form:

E. g.: He usually be around. [11, p. 55]

She be nice and happy. [11, p. 55]

Sometime when they do it, most of the problems always be wrong.

¨ Another grammatical characteristic is question inversion in indirect questions. Often we can come across a sentence like this:

E. g.: I asked Mary where did she go. [11, p. 57]

I want to know did he come last night. [11, p. 57]

¨ One more grammatical feature is negativized auxiliary preposition. In African American Vernacular English, if a sentence has a negative indefinite pronoun like nobody, nothing, then the negative auxiliary (doesn’t, can’t) can be placed at the beginning of the sentence:

E. g.: Can’t nobody do nothing about it. [11, p. 57]

Wasn’t nothing wrong with it. [11, p. 57]

(Both the sentences are pronounced with statement intonation.)

¨ We can also point out a short form of is not, are not, has not, have not – ain’t.

E. g.: This guy ain’t a gangster. [19]

However, most often ain’t is accompanied by the negative particle no, thus performing double negation.

E. g.: This man ain’t no MC. [19]

It ain’t no heaven for you to go to. [11, p. 57]

¨ The final grammatical peculiarity of the language rappers use in the considered extracts of the films is shortening of the following grammatical forms: have got to, has got to, have got a, has got a – gotta.

E. g.: It’s gotta happen, and it’s gotta happen now. [19]

Mom, you gotta stop living your life like this. [19]

(3) In terms of phonetics, the following features can be noticed:

¨ Dropping final consonants or sounds from words.

E. g.: Give me yo han (instead of “Give me your hand”). [20]

He ax a question (instead of “He asked a question”). [20]

¨ No “th” sound is found in rappers’ speech. It is often replaced with a hard consonant.

E. g.: “dat” for “that”

“baf” for “bath”.[20]

(4) On the lexical level, it is necessary to point out that the lexical repertoire of rappers reflects the mood of the representatives of the subculture. They are usually concerned with the following problems:

¨ They are embitted with the whole world.

¨ They do not see a light at the end of the tunnel.

¨ They do not see how things can be better than what they are today.

¨ They believe that the great things are impossible to achieve.

In accordance with what was once formulated by Bernstein, rappers use lexis from a narrow range. Their speech is often very cynical and rude. A lot of abusive lexical units are used.

The speech is highly metaphoric. The metaphoric nature of the language of rap subculture is revealed, for example, through the choice of nicknames. They turn out to be completely non-motivated and not understandable to a person who is not connected with this very group of rappers. Here are the nicknames, which belong to rap stars:

¨ 50 Cent

¨ Notorious B. I. G.

¨ Eminem

¨ D12

¨ G-Unit

¨ DMX

¨ Dr. Dre

¨ Busta Rhymes

¨ Lil’ Kim

The following nicknames were used in the film “8 Mile”:

¨ Rabbit (the main character)

¨ Future

¨ Maximum

¨ Brimstone

¨ Godfather D

As it was stated above, a prominent American sociolinguist D. Hymes classified the components of a speech situation, which are at the same time factors influencing speech behavior. They can be united by means of the acronym SPEAKING. We will try to describe rapper’s speech behavior in terms of Hymes’ classification.

Setting – circumstances and scene. In the movie “8 Mile” the setting is one of the districts of Detroit known as black urban area close to where black community lives. The rappers were gathering together at a special club, in the evening to arrange the so-called rap battles.

Participants – sender and addressee. The 'performing' participants of the so called rap battles are chosen in advance. Two of them appear on the stage. The performance is directed to the members of the same grouping who are going to dance and support the representative of their own community. These people shout and usually consume a big amount of alcoholic drinks.

Effect – the assumed result and aims. The rapper on the stage has a number of aims:

¨ He wants to tell the public about himself, his family, his hobbies, his occupation, his friends, and life in general.

¨ He wants to reveal the truth about the world around him, which usually seems to him really cruel and raging.

¨ He wants to humiliate his rival and make the public laugh at the opponent.

¨ Some rappers, especially Chinese-American ones, do not rap about getting shot, going to jail or doing drugs. They do rhyme about interracial dating, about being compared to Eminem, about Chinatown and about being Chinese-American.

Act sequences – the communication form and contents. Every battle starts with yells of the crowd. Then the battle proper takes place. The battle is usually a spontaneous head-to-head duel involving very rude aggressive words. The text usually lacks rhyme but has a certain rhythm. It is pronounced along with a musical beat. As soon as the participants finish their performance, the winner is chosen.

Keys – the manner of message transmission. Great excitement, noise, rhythm, hidden threat, and aggression usually characterize the atmosphere of the club, where a rap battle is held.

Instrumentalities – speech channels and forms. As for channels, we can say that rappers use both independent channels (speech which is very dynamic including exclamations, like Yeah! Yo! Come on!) and dependent ones (rhythmical movement of their bodies, which reminds of a mild form of hip-hop dance).

Norms. The norms are far from Standard American. Understanding is further hampered by the constant presence of beat and rhythm.

Genres. As for genre, we can speak here about a unique genre originated by rappers: the so-called rap battles, where speech, music and body movement blend together, so that it is impossible to imagine them separate from one another.

Thank you for your attention.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 995