Arthur Spears

B.A., Univ. of Kansas; M.A., Johns Hopkins (International Relations); M.A., Northwestern Univ. (Linguistics); Ph.D., Univ. of California, (Linguistics)

Language contact/ pidgin and creole languages (French- and Iberian-lexifier creoles); sociolinguistics; anthropological linguistics; African American English; language, race, and ideology; language and education, controversial words and expressions.

Spears, Arthur K., ed. To appear. Language, Inequality, and Endangerment: African Americans and Native Americans. Special Issue of Transforming Anthropology 18.1. 2010.

Spears, Arthur K. and Carole M. Berotte Joseph, eds. In press. The Haitian Creole Language: History, Structure, Use, and Education. Lexington /Rowman & Littlefield.

Spears, Arthur K., ed. In press. Black Language in the English-Speaking Caribbean and the United States: History, Structure, Use, and Education. Lexington/ Rowman & Littlefield.

Makoni, Sinfree, Geneva Smitherman, Arnetha F. Ball, and Arthur K. Spears, eds. 2003. Black Linguistics: Language, Society and Politics in Africa and the Americas. New York: Routledge.

Spears, Arthur K., ed. 1999. Race and Ideology: Language, Symbolism, and Popular Culture. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

Spears, Arthur K. and Donald Winford, eds. 1997. The Structure and Status of Pidgins and Creoles. Philadelphia & Amsterdam: John Benjamins Inc.

Language and Speakers: An Introduction to African American English and Native American Languages. (with Leanne Hinton) In Language, Inequality, and Endangerment: African Americans and Native Americans,guest ed. Arthur K. Spears. Special Issue of Transforming Anthropology 18.1. 2010.

On Shallow Grammar: African American English and the Critique of Exceptionalism. In The Languages of Africa and the Diaspora: Educating for Language Awareness, ed. by Jo Anne Kleifgen and George C. Bond, 231-248. Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters. 2009.

Writing Truth to Power: Racism as Statecraft. In Anthropology off the Shelf, ed. by Maria Vesperi and Alisse Waterston, 93-100. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 2009.

Pidgins/Creoles and African-American English. The Handbook of Pidgins and Creoles, ed. by Silvia Kouwenberg and John Victor Singler, 512-542. Blackwell Publishers. 2008.

Bare Nouns in African American English (AAE). In Noun Phrases in Creole Languages, ed. by Marlyse Baptista and Jacqueline Guéron, 421-434. Philadelphia/ Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 2007

African American Communicative Practices: Performativity, Semantic License and Augmentation. In Talkin Black Talk, ed. by H. Samy Alim and John Baugh, 100-111. New York: Teachers College Press. 2007

Perspectives: A View of the “N-Word” from Sociolinguistics. Diverse Issues in Higher Education – Online. July 13, 2006.

Directness in the Use of African-American English. Sociocultural and Historical Contexts of African-American English, ed. by Sonja L. Lanehart, 239-259. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2001.

Ebonics and African-American English. Ebonics and Language Education of African Ancestry Students, ed. by Clinton Crawford,235-247. New York: Sankofa World Publishers. 2001

Race and Ideology: An Introduction. Race and Ideology, ed. by Spears, 11-58. 1999.

Teaching "Minorities" about Language and Culture. Race and Ideology, ed. by Spears, 61-82. 1999.

African-American Language Use: Ideology and So-Called Obscenity. African American English: Structure, History, and Usage, ed. by Salikoko S. Mufwene, John R. Rickford, Guy Bailey, and John Baugh, 226-250. New York: Routledge. 1998.

Foregrounding and Backgrounding in Haitian Creole Discourse. Focus and Grammatical Relations in Creole Languages, ed. by Francis Byrne and Donald Winford, 249‑265. John Benjamins. 1993.

Stem and So‑Called "Anterior" Verb Forms in Haitian Creole. Atlantic Meets Pacific:A Global View of Pidginization and Creolization, ed. by Francis Byrne and John Holm, 261‑275. Amsterdam:John Benjamins. 1993.

Tense, Mood, and Aspect in the Haitian Creole Preverbal Marker System. Pidgin/Creole Tense, Modality, Aspect Systems (Creole Language Library, Pieter Muysken, series editor), ed. by John Victor Singler, 119‑142. Amsterdam:John Benjamins. 1990.

The Black English Semi‑Auxiliary Come. Language 58.4:850‑72. 1982.Reprinted in Readings in African American Language: Aspects, Features, and Perspectives, ed. by Nathaniel Norment, 173-201. New York: Peter Lang. 2002.