required plural marking in 2PP

[Wilson Gray]

On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 2:18 PM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: required plural marking in 2PP
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Prescribed gap
> Michael Newman wrote: <<<required plural marking in 2PP ...  To be
> understood I should have said "you guys." This is the next logical step in
> the evolution of the English pronoun ...  to the extent that such steps can
> be described as logical.>>>
> WB: Naive language users are more analogical than logical. There has
> probably always been systemic pressure to maintain a singular vs. plural
> distinction in English pronouns. The bizarreness is the pedantic rail
> against filling the gap. I'll use y'all at home, you guys in the classroom,
> you people at a group I'm angry at. Probably other forms of second person
> plural to fit the occasion. This is an instance of prescriptivists using a
> paradigm gap as a shibboleth.
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

>From watching random tube, I get the impression that "you all" /
"you-all" is pretty much the standard plural of "you," in the States,
regardless of the speaker's race, creed, color, or sexual orientation.
It's just that, AFAIK, no one with sufficient academic credentials or
of sufficient social prominence has yet had the nerve to go on record
as having said so.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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