Reddit reviews African American English: A Linguistic Introduction
We found 5 Reddit comments about African American English: A Linguistic Introduction. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
True and consistent across the United States see:
http://www.amazon.com/African-American-English-Linguistic-Introduction/dp/0521891388
> What are they?
There are many - you can read about them in a grammar of AAVE the same way you can for English, French, Tok Pisin, British/American/Jamaican English, whatever.
This question has been asked before, so I recommend doing some searches on the sub.
The general summary is: we don't really know. There are various theories out there as to the origins of AAE. All of them have merits but also have biases. You can read about this on the AAVE wiki page.
A great book on AAE is Green's African American English: A Linguistic Introduction. I'm pretty sure the "Look inside" feature will let you read the preface "On accounting for the origin of AAE."
"A way to intensity what you're saying" is your analysis or interpretation, and might not be correct. You should be careful not to jump to conclusions about the meaning of the construction.
In accordance with the other person's comment, which seems to nail it, the construction seems related more to expressing or beckoning familiarity rather than "more intensity".
Also, it has probably been popularized by rap and AAVE, given a new art, given a new life. So if you hear it more lately, that's probably due to cultural influence or momentum. But that's different than the construction itself "coming from" the dialect. Whereas, there are many great [other] expressions that entirely originate in African American English.
African American English: A Linguistic Introduction by Lisa Green is my go-to reference, but it was published before the rise of Twitter and doesn't contain reference to this use of "that".
For AAVE, there's this book. It's awesome and very descriptive, too.