Re: Re: A little more on y'all redux

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/4/05 6:03:37 PM, GordonMJ at MISSOURI.EDU writes:


> 
> The development of plural 2nd person pronouns into singulars (often 
> conveying politeness or formality originally) is motivated psychologically and/or 
> socially. We all know about the European examples (English you, French vous, 
> German sie, even Spanish Usted comes from vuestra (2nd person plural possessive) 
> + merced "grace" - I hope I'm remembering this right).  I believe this is 
> common elsewhere in the world as well. And in the French and German cases the 
> polite/formal singular forms retain their plural meanings, so the suggestion 
> that the transparent plurality of one form might prevent it from developing 
> into a singular isn't persuasive.
> 
> The development from plural to deferential singular makes sense b/c the 
> plural is less threateningly direct (e.g. "I wasn't talking about just you, I was 
> talking about all yall"). So in talking to a social superior you could use 
> the plural as a more indirect form of address. Eventually the semantic 
> component of plurality is seen as optional and the form comes to mean "polite" 
> singular and maybe eventually just singular. I'm sure others on the list can 
> explain this more eloquently. My point is that,  based on cross-linguistic 
> evidence, we might expect that yall would develop into a (polite) singular 
> eventually. Whether or not it actually has done this is a different issue.
> 

Good points, Matt. I'd only respond that (a). the sociocultural situation 
that brought about the loss of THOU (etc.) was quite different from that of 20th 
Century America; (b) there seems to be little evidence that Y'ALL is replacing 
YOU (or even that it is used with any frequency at all, despite the fact that 
the assertions that singular Y'ALL is "possible" have been going on for 
generations; and (c) the contrast between "you" and "y'all" is firmly implicit in 
the thought experiment presented in the second paragraph.