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From: ax823092@oak.cats.ohiou.edu (Anthony John Xenos)
Subject: Re: You, Youse, ...All Y'all
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Date: Fri, 16 Feb 1996 03:11:49 GMT
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Peter's one isolated example of y'all used singularly proves nothing.  It
should be commonly understood that there are imperfections in everyday speech,
such as missing articles, calling a person the wrong name, using the wrong
pronoun.  These mistakes are not indications that the person has an incomplete
understanding of their language, but that the human apparatus is imperfect.
This is the reason people have so much redundancy built into their
communication.  If we could flawlessly understand and utter every sound, we
could limit our entire vocabulary to a precise code of monosyllabic words.

This waitress may well have spoken out of habit, or been quite tired, or just
slipped up.  Or she may haveused y'all as second person singular,
and is the only one, or maybe she is one of many.
I'm unwilling to rule out the first option until I see some evidence of
consistant use across an entire speech community.

Craig
>
>
Peter Hoogenboom wrote:
>Lee S. Bumgarner (bumgarls@falcon.jmu.edu) wrote:
>: Bert Clanton (bert@sonic.net) wrote:
>: > I'm a Southerner (by birth and early upbringing, at least) who vehemently
>: > denies that Southerners ever use "y'all" as a singular pronoun.
>
>Then explain why the waitress asked me "Would y'all like some fries with
>that"?  I was not only the only customer at my table, but I was the only
>one in the restaurant.  Sorry, I don't remember where I was at the time.
>
>: > There IS a usage that "LOOKS" like that, however. Sometimes a Southerner
>: > who is speaking to a single other person will say something like "Y'all
>: > come on over this afternoon, you hear?" What is meant, however, is not
>: > "You come over by yourself". What is meant is, "You (and other persons
>: > whose identity is contextually obvious from the conversation) come over".
>: > E.g., the speaker might mean, "Come on over, and bring your husband".
>
>This does not explain the situation I cite above.
>
>: > As a person who spoke "Southernese" until my early twenties, I consider
>: > myself to be a "truly reliable source".
>
>Maybe *you* never used "y'all" for the singular, and maybe even a vast
>majority of southerners do, but a significant number of (I assume not-
>well-educated) southerners do.
>
>Peter
>
>--
>Peter Hoogenboom                        phoogenb@wlu.edu
>Department of Music, DuPont 208         hoogenboom.p@fs.sciences.wlu.edu
>Washington and Lee University           phoogenboom@wesleyan.edu
>Lexington, VA 24450                     (540) 463-8697
--
--
Tony Xenos                                                     Craig A. Butz
10 Hocking Street                                          2498 Mineral Road
Athens, Ohio 45701                           New Marshfield, Ohio 45766-9747
