new Web of Language post: You are the person of the year
Dennis Baron
debaron at UIUC.EDU
Sun Dec 24 07:00:56 UTC 2006
There's a new post on the
Web of Language:
Click on:
"You are the person of the year. One of you? Two of you? All of you?"
"Time magazine has just announced that you are its person of the year
for 2006. One blogger faulted the magazine for not making clear
whether you is singular or plural. Since the magazine’s cover has a
mirror – actually a bit of silvered paper impersonating a mirror – it
seemed clear to me that you was singular. . . ."
To find out why, go to
http://www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
Happy holidays,
Dennis
Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English
University of Illinois
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801
office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321
www.uiuc.edu/goto/debaron
read the Web of Language:
www.uiuc.edu/goto/weboflanguage
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