> Why should dictionaries and grammar books be any more authoritative than the way people actually speak?
Simple, because of perception. Whether you like it or not perception matters. If I perceive your car as worth your selling price, a deal happens - doesn't mean my perception over yours is any more "correct". Same happens with stock prices, or hiring decisions. In other words, the things that matter in the day-to-day life in which we currently function include dictionaries and grammar books.
But it's the difference between recognizing AAVE as its own thing, sociolinguistic warts and all, and labeling it as "broken English."
Linguistics isn't just about grammar (in fact, in linguistics "grammatical" is basically synonymous with "understood by a native speaker"), it's also about the signals we send when we speak a certain way (semantics and sociolinguistics).
Labeling AAVE as "broken English" is just a way of dismissing it and giving ourselves an excuse for not understanding it.
For example, I know plenty of successful people who have poor grammar. But nobody goes around saying they speak "broken English," and if I pointed that out everyone would think I'm an asshole.
Why don't people react the same way when we say someone speaking AAVE has "broken English?" Why is it ok to point out how "poorly" they speak?
Anyhow, all I mean to say is that the proper study of AAVE includes the idea that speaking it signals certain things about the speaker, not just its syntax, morphology, etc.
I recommend reading the research of William Labov, who has ton of work in studying the various dialects of American English.
Are you actually saying that our perception of the world is actually bending the world?
I agree that perception matters. For instance, a bad perception could mean you buy a worthless car, or make a bad hiring decision. It doesn't mean, however, that the car was worth your money, or that the bad employee was worth hiring.
Same thing about AAVE. If it has been proved that this is a dialect of English, it is a dialect of English. No matter how delusional the majority of the population can be.
META: Why the dowmod? This is a genuine question. Apparently, my post was unacceptable, but I am unable to see how. Did I make a factual mistake? Was my tone Inappropriate? Was I off Topic? How did I cross the line?
Simple, because of perception. Whether you like it or not perception matters. If I perceive your car as worth your selling price, a deal happens - doesn't mean my perception over yours is any more "correct". Same happens with stock prices, or hiring decisions. In other words, the things that matter in the day-to-day life in which we currently function include dictionaries and grammar books.