FW: Guys for Girls Redux

[Alice Faber]

Frank Abate said:
>RE what Larry H says (cc'd below) in reply to Katy M:
>
>I think this _dude_ is a sort of super-vocative, and does not refer to any
>person specifically, but is simply a marker of surprise.  So in that context
>it would be non-gender referential . . . or might we call it generic?
>
>I have heard my teen and slightly beyond-teen kids and their friends say
>this for years, and it seems an utterance of surprise, not directed to any
>person.
>

I've heard _Dude!_ as a general exclamation. For instance, one of my
colleagues was pleasantly surprised at a cool computer trick I showed
him. His use of _Dude!_ struck me as a somewhat more emphatic
alternative to _cool!_.
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963