Background
Butters, Ronald Richard was born on February 12, 1940 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. Son of Richard Orton and Dorothy Mae Butters.
(For some time, a view has prevailed among American sociol...)
For some time, a view has prevailed among American sociolinguists that Black and White dialects in the United States, following a general trend towards assimilation of ethnic varieties, have been converging, becoming more alike. Recently, several American scholars have put forth the opposite hypothesis of linguistic divergence. This book examines in critical detail a variety of evidence that bears upon the divergence hypothesis, and it surveys as well aspects of the political implications of the construct. The author concludes that the evidence is far from sufficient to support a strong divergence theory. If Black English turns out to be an exception to the supposed prevailing tendency of minority speech varieties to assimilate to more mainstream varieties, it is only because the relationship seems to be essentially static: Black and White vernaculars in the United States appear to be diverging with respect to some features - major and minor - but converging with respect to others.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/3631420560/?tag=2022091-20
Butters, Ronald Richard was born on February 12, 1940 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States. Son of Richard Orton and Dorothy Mae Butters.
Bachelor, University Iowa, 1962. Doctor of Philosophy, University Iowa, 1967.
Assistant Professor of English, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, 1967-1974; associate Professor of English, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, 1974-1990; Professor of English, Duke U., Durham, North Carolina, since 1990. Editor American Speech Journal of the American Dialect Society, 1981-1995. Visiting scholar Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, 1988-1989.
(For some time, a view has prevailed among American sociol...)
Member American Dialect Society (vice president 1997-1999, president 2000-2002), International Association Forensic Linguists (vice president 2007-2008, president since 2009), Linguistic Society of America, Southeastern Conference Linguistics (president 1983), Law and Society Association, Dictionary Society North America.
Children: Rebecca, Catherine, Rachel.