you guys

[Laurence Horn]

Mai Kuha writes on sex-neutral "(you) guys":

>  And, as was
>pointed out earlier, this is yesterday's news in the north. Around here,
>though (Indiana, supposedly just north of the Hoosier Apex, although the
>reality of regional variation is more complex than that, of course) it
>hasn't been all that clear to me whether "you guys" or "y'all" is going to
>win. I regularly hear students voice the opinion that it's sexist to address
>women as "guys".
>
...a position that Douglas Hofstadter (1997) has expounded upon in
some detail (Le Ton beau de Marot:  In Praise of the Music of
Language, p. 202).  For a different view, see Steven J. Clancy
(1999), "The ascent of guy," American Speech 74: 282-97.

Larry