y'all redux

[James C Stalker]

Sorry JL.  Not just another damnyankee hypothesis.  I spent the first 22
years of my life in KY and NC, and many years of the rest of my life
defending my native KY dialect.   My wife, a native of VA and KY, adamantly
insists that she uses singular yall, and has for years.  I check these
postings with the one who really knows.  After all, I'm just KY.  She's
tidewater VA and KY. This yall=singular posting is a repetative one, and
interesting because it is repetitive. Something hasn't  been resolved or
solved.  I think yall are (is) making assumptions based on an email address
rather than knowledge about the informant.

You have made an interesting statement: "*Average* Southern speaker. . .far
more likely to admit the possibility of occassional singularity than are
sophisticated Southerners with an interest in language?"  Therefore, I
reckon average "unsophisticated" Southern speakers don't know nothin about
their language, can't make judgments about their language. Only we linguists
can?  If they claim "occasional" singuarity, they must  be wrong because we
sophisticated linguists know they are wrong?

I think my original post is perhaps proved by your response.  We are dealing
with pragmatic presuppositions rather than grammatical agreement.

JS


Jonathan Lighter writes:

> Then how explain the occasional Southerner who admits to occasional singularity?
>
> Most people, one assumes, don't often monitor their own speech for absolute semantic precision.  Whatever the observable facts of "singularity," the *average* Southern speaker, I believe, is far more likely to admit the possibility of occasional singularity than are sophisticated Southerners with an interest in language.
>
> Just another damyankee hypothesis.
>
> JL
>
>
> James C Stalker <stalker at MSU.EDU> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: James C Stalker
> Subject: Re: y'all redux
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Maybe our problem here is not a grammatical one of singularity/plurality,
> but a pragmatic one of mutual contextual knowlege and beliefs (a la, Bach
> and Harnish). Southerners (self proclaimed, on this list) deny singularity.
> Non-Southerners (apparently, or by long disassociation with native dialect)
> claim to hear singularity. This posting suggests that we are dealing with
> expectations (i. e., presuppositions) rather than grammaticality. For
> Southerners, the implicature is always plural. "Northerners" do not share
> the mutual contextual knowledge with "Southerners," therefore interpret the
> context grammatically rather than pragmatically.
>
> Jim Stalker
>
> Majors, Tivoli writes:
>
>> I'm from Dallas so I thought I'd weigh in on the whole y'all thing. We used to argue about this in grad school at UT all the time. Generally, it was yankees who would say they heard y'all used in the singular. Us Texans would vehemently deny the possibiility. What I think may be going on is that when we southerners use y'all, it always has a plural intention, but may not seem to to outsiders. So if someone were to say to me "Did y'all enjoy that movie?" I would understand that to be addressed to me, anyone who saw the movie with me, and even anyone loosely affiliated with me. My assumption would not be that they meant me myself alone. In fact, I'd say that meaning is not allowable in my dialect. I can't speak for others, of course, but we Texans were generally in agreement on this point. None of us was from West Texas, but Ft. Worth is just a stone's throw from Dallas, so I'm still a little dubious.
>>
>
>
>
> James C. Stalker
> Department of English
> Michigan State University
>
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James C. Stalker
Department of English
Michigan State University