Gates examines the ways in which signifyin(g) differs from signifying.Īccording to Gates, the practice derived from the trickster archetype found in much African mythology, folklore, and religion: a god, goddess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and societal norms. writes that thinking about signifyin' is like 'stumbling unaware into a hall of mirrors,' hence the action of doubling.

He states of black vernacular, 'their complex act of language Signifies upon both formal language use and its conventions, conventions established, at least officially, by middle-class white people.' to represent a black vernacular, the idea stems from the thoughts of Ferdinand De Saussure and the process of signifying-'the association between words and the ideas they indicate.' Gates states, ''Signification,' in standard English, denotes the meaning that a term conveys, or is intended to convey.' Gates takes this idea of signifying and 'doubles' it in order to explain signifyin(g).

While signifyin(g) is the term coined by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Rudy Ray Moore, known as 'Dolemite', is well-known for having used the term in his comedic performances. To this list we could easily add aporia, chiasmus, and catachresis, all of which are used in the ritual of Signifyin(g).' Origin and features wrote in The Signifying Monkey (1988) that signifyin' is 'a trope, in which are subsumed several other rhetorical tropes, including metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony (the master tropes), and also hyperbole, litotes, and metalepsis. The American literary critic Henry Louis Gates Jr. The expression comes from stories about the signifying monkey, a trickster figure said to have originated during slavery in the United States. Signifyin' directs attention to the connotative, context-bound significance of words, which is accessible only to those who share the cultural values of a given speech community.

Other names for signifyin' include: 'Dropping lugs, joaning, sounding, capping, snapping, dissing, busting, bagging, janking, ranking, toasting, woofing, roasting, putting on, or cracking.'

A simple example would be insulting someone to show them affection. It is a practice in African-American culture involving a verbal strategy of indirection that exploits the gap between the denotative and figurative meanings of words. Signifyin' (sometimes written ' signifyin(g)') (vernacular), is a wordplay. Wordplay in Black American communities emphasizes connotation over literal meaning

Gates the signifying monkey