"we" [was: Another kind of buddy: ''guy'']

[Joel S. Berson]

I don't eat with my server, just as I don't do well with my hospital
nurse.  (Having recently visited Monticello, I applaud Jefferson's
solution for dining at home:  a rotating, shelved pass-through, to
keep the kitchen personnel invisible; only those few serving at table
were present in the dining room.)

Perhaps those in charge should bring "you all" to the north.

Joel

At 6/15/2007 01:09 AM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>I spoke with a server, perhaps last year, who gave some meta-commentary
>about this. He said second person plural is a difficult problem learned
>to avoid the informal-sounding "you guys" by switching to "we". BB
>
>Doug Harris wrote:
>>I've observed a lot of younger-than-most-everybody servers (in
>>restaurants) refer to their customers, including, collectively,
>>male and female couples, as _guys_. Though my grandmother would
>>have been appalled to be so addressed, I'm usually able to prevent
>>my knee jerking similarly, and to accept the remark in the 'for
>>the next hour I'm your buddy' way in which it was intended.
>>(the other) doug
>>
>>>At 6/14/2007 11:12 PM, RonButters wrote:
>>>
>>>>Is it only gay men who address each other as "guy"?
>>>=20
>>>I think lots of younger-than-I men and women, and boys and girls,
>>>refer to each other as "guys" -- "you guys" -- without distinction as
>>>to the gender of the guys.=A0 I've even used it myself, addressing
>>>youngsters:=A0 "You guys need to be quieter in the library."=A0 But of
>>>the singular I do not speak; surely the vocative singular (if I'm
>>>using the right term) must be rare.
>>>=20
>>>Joel
>>>=20
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org