John R. Rickford

Education Rickford earned his B.A. in sociolinguistics at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1968–1971), on a Fulbright undergraduate scholarship. == Field of expertise ==

Rickford's sociolinguistic research focuses on the relation between language variation and ethnicity, social class, variation and change. He is especially interested in the varieties of English spoken by marginalized communities in relation to ethical and economical characteristics. His research focuses on African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) or Ebonics, spoken by many African Americans and the role linguistics plays in the educational context. Rickford argues that AAVE is systematic and rule-governed like all natural speech. Most of his data comes from English-based creoles of the Caribbean, especially, Guyanese Creole, Jamaican and Barbadian and American English. Memberships in professional societies • Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2017) • Member of the U. S. National Academy of Sciences (2021) ==Selected publications==

• (Ed.), A Festival of Guyanese Words. Georgetown: University of Guyana. Second edition, revised and expanded, 1978. • Dimensions of a Creole Continuum, Stanford (1987): Stanford University Press. • African American English, eds. Salikoko S. Mufwene, John R. Rickford, Guy Bailey and John Baugh. London: Routledge, 1998. • African American Vernacular English: Features and Use, Evolution, and Educational Implications, Oxford (1999): Blackwell. • Spoken Soul: The Story of Black English (with Russell J. Rickford). New York: John Wiley, 2000. [Winner of a 2000 American Book Award] • Language in the USA: Themes for the Twenty-First Century, ed. (with Edward Finegan). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. • Raciolinguistics: How Language Shapes Our Ideas About Race, eds. H. Samy Alim, John R. Rickford and Arnetha F. Ball. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016. ==Personal life==

Rickford is married to professor Angela Rickford, and they have four children. ==References==