The Life of GuyPub Date : 2019-08-22DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0010
Allan Metcalf
{"title":"Ladies and Gentlemen","authors":"Allan Metcalf","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0010","url":null,"abstract":"In the 20th century, “guys” continued its expansion, becoming less particular as it grew more general. This chapter illustrates this development with many examples. At first there are a few outliers with an extended meaning, then more, until the extended is included without calling attention to it. “Guy” and “guys” first extended their meaning to encompass every male, infant to geezer. In the process they discarded their negative restrictions to low class or badly dressed, so “guy” was now, often enough, just a neutral designation for a male. And “guys” stretched even further, to include women. At first, as in Edna Ferber’s 1911 novel Dawn O’Hara, The Girl Who Laughed, it’s a mixed group, in this case one woman in an audience of five journalists being addressed by another one, a male. But if “guys” can include one woman, why not all? That’s the case in Rachel Crothers’s 1911 play, “He and She,” that has “guys” entirely female, in the phrase “wise guys.” By mid-century, in most of the United States, “guys” was the normal scarcely noted second-person plural pronoun. It has spread around the world also. Even speakers in Guy Fawkes’s home town of York, England, now use “you guys,” where it was unheard as recently as two decades ago.","PeriodicalId":127260,"journal":{"name":"The Life of Guy","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131718029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Life of GuyPub Date : 2019-08-22DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0013
Allan A. Metcalf
{"title":"Guys Victorious","authors":"Allan A. Metcalf","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0013","url":null,"abstract":"“You guys” or plain “guys” has now become the standard second-person plural personal pronoun used by most of us. We know that because we don’t have to stop and think about it; we just use it as the normal way to designate a group of people. In linguistic terms, it’s now unmarked, as it has been from the start; if it were marked, that is noticed, every time it’s used, that would be a sign that it’s not the regular plural. But it is. What about the competition? It has the advantage over “yous,” “you-uns,” and “yinz” by being less conspicuous and thus less likely to encounter objections for any reason. “You folks” and “you people” are impeccable, but they carry implications; the former is too folksy for some occasions, “you people” a little condescending for others. Without being obvious, “you guys” has a hint of friendship or camaraderie. “You guys” also has the advantage over “y’all,” in being clearly only plural, where “y’all” can be singular too. And “y’all” is strongly linked to the South, whereas “you guys” is tied to no particular region.","PeriodicalId":127260,"journal":{"name":"The Life of Guy","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116514280","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Life of GuyPub Date : 2019-08-22DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0014
Allan Metcalf
{"title":"Future Guys","authors":"Allan Metcalf","doi":"10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0014","url":null,"abstract":"So “you guys” and plain “guys” have succeeded in filling the vacuum in second-person plural pronouns left by the departure of “thou.” What’s next? Four possible futures come to mind: (1) “guys” could continue to extend its hegemony over other candidates for the role of addressing groups; (2) like the plural, the singular “guy” could extend refer not just to a male but to any human being; (3) “guys” could be excoriated sufficiently by those who object to its wider use, so it would retreat to meaning males only; and (4) student activists could follow the example of “guy” and “guys” and use their own names as second-person plural pronouns that everyone should use.","PeriodicalId":127260,"journal":{"name":"The Life of Guy","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126839815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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