Newsgroups: alt.usage.english,sci.lang
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!williamb
From: williamb@netcom.com (Richard Belcher)
Subject: Re: You, Youse, ...All Y'all
Message-ID: <williambDMuECn.7v8@netcom.com>
Followup-To: alt.usage.english,sci.lang
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1]
References: <DMDFJM.F2u@boss.cs.ohiou.edu> <4f8skj$ocg@ixnews7.ix.netcom.com> <4fau9u$14eb@hearst.cac.psu.edu> <4ffp18$2a7@curly.cc.emory.edu> <runderhill-1202961911310001@underhill.sdsu.edu> <bert-1502960810560001@pm153.sonic.net> <4g09rq$1g39@hearst.cac
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 00:21:59 GMT
Lines: 30
Sender: williamb@netcom4.netcom.com

 .psu.edu>
 Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)

: But we have heard from at least one Northerner (?) who testified that he had 
: an experience where he was alone and was addressed as "y'all". Not as in "How 
: y'all doin'?", which could, in your view, be interpreted as meaning "How are 
: you, and while we're shootin' the breeze, why don't you tell me how your 
: kinfolk are as well?". It was (paraphrasing from memory) "What would y'all 
: like to eat?" Does this mean "What would you and your huntin' dawgs (who must 
: be out in the truck, and to whom you are obvioulsy going to feed the scraps) 
: like to eat?" Jeez, I've heard of implicit referents before, but this borders 
: on the mystical. Could maybe the spectrum of English usage in the South be a 
: little bigger than you think? Or is the ability of the Southern mind to 
: include unnamed and absent individuals simply beyond my Northern 
: comprehension?

  Well now since you asked, of course most southerners are beyond your 
yankee comprehension, most southerners are just too polite to say so. 

: --
: Martin A. Mazur                      | 2nd Century thoughts on MTV:
: The Applied Research Laboratory      | "There is no public entertainment which
: The Pennsylvania State University    |    does not inflict spiritual damage"
:                                      |              - Tertullian

-- 
  People just don't seem to gavotte and mazurka with the spirit and grace 
that they used to.
                                          Richard Belcher
                                          williamb@netcom.com

