required plural marking in 2PP

[Benjamin Barrett]

I'm one person. I know I'm more conscious of the form when women are around.

I use "guys" when women are present, but a flag goes up in my mind and I perform a quick calculation of the situation (at least some of the time). I wouldn't knowingly use "you guys" when women my mother's age and older are included. Isn't that common sense?

Surely the same thing applies to "businessperson" and "salesperson." Aren't women more likely to be addressed that way than men?

Benjamin Barrett
Seattle, WA

On Jul 8, 2012, at 10:49 PM, Michael Newman wrote:

> I got told off once too by an art education professor who sniffed that =
> feminists care about such things. Later on by coincidence I heard she =
> got told off by other people in recounting the story.=20
>
>
> it's ultimately an empircal question whether there's a semantic bias =
> towards males in this form of address. Since no one has done the =
> necessary research, we can't say for sure. But I sure don't see it. It =
> sure doesn't feel intuitively at all the same as generic man or epicene =
> he.=20
>
>
> Michael Newman
> Associate Professor of Linguistics
> Queens College/CUNY
> michael.newman at qc.cuny.edu
>
>
>
> On Jul 8, 2012, at 10:57 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =
> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      Re: required plural marking in 2PP
>> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
>> =20
>> At 7/8/2012 04:44 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>>> It would surprise me if "you all" isn't used more frequently than
>>> "you guys" when women are present. That's the hint.
>> =20
>> I've used "you guys" in addressing two or more women of my
>> acquaintance, and been called out by the more senior of them.  On the
>> other hand, my unresearched impression is that it is not uncommon for
>> women.  Or perhaps "among women" -- that is, like other epithets it
>> is OK for the in-group but not for outsiders.
>> =20
>> (Boston area.)
>> =20
>> Joel
>> =20

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