Is this you?

[Jonathan Lighter]

An equivalent bus-and-subway-stop phrase would be, "This looks like me."

But  "Is this you?" even in that context sounds rather (or extremely) odd.

JL


On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 12:16 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Is this you?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> My wife (who grew up in Chicago in the 1950s and '60s) uses that
> formulation.  I'd always assumed it's an idiosyncrasy!  I have often
> replied, sarcastically, "No, I'm over here."
>
> --Charlie
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 7:58 AM, Michael Newman
> >
> > Matt,
> >
> > Good point, and it's why you're such a good linguist!   I was looking
> > briefly at an article by Gregory Ward in Language on displaced reference,
> > which this falls under.
> >
> >  In my view, it's "Is this your stuff" "or "this is my stuff."
> >
> >
> > It's not "this is where my car is parked"
> >
> > So it's essentially, it's identify the person associated with the thing
> > rather than the location of a thing associated with a person.
> >
> >
> > Michael Newman
>
> > > Poster:       "Joel S. Berson"
> > > Subject:      Re: Is this you?
> > >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > >
> > > Does this locution appear only/mainly when the "this" is seen as
> > > characterizing or defining the person, as a car might define a person
> > > as staid or racy?  "That hairdo/dress/... is me."
> > >
> > > Joel
> > >
> > > At 1/28/2014 08:32 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> > >> Depends on what "this" is, I'd think.  For cars, it's pretty
> > >> widespread, i.e. "Is this/that you?" meaning 'Is this/that your
> > >> car?'  With a socket wrench and a Phillips head screwdriver at the
> > >> hardware store, I'm not so sure.
> > >>
> > >> LH
> > >>
> > >> On Jan 28, 2014, at 8:14 PM, Michael Newman wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Is the expression "this is me" meaning "this is mine" (etc. for
> > >> you, etc)  limited to NYC and environs?
> > >>>
> > >>> I've been hearing it for a while, and my husband asked me if it's
> > >> an NYC thing. I just heard it in the following exchange, and
> > >> thought I'd better ask before putting it in my NYC English book,
> > >> which I'm sending off again as soon as I get this issue settled yea
> yea.
> > >>>
> > >>> Setting Hardware store with a bunch of products on the counter.
> > >>>
> > >>> Store guy to me: "Is this you?"
> > >>> Me: Nah
> > >>> Other customer: "This is me."
> > >>> Store guy: "OK"
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> Michael Newman
>
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