Re: yalls's

Steg Belsky wrote:
>
> On Tue, 20 Jun 2000 01:44:11 -0400 Muke Tever <alrivera@...>
> writes:
> > Hmm, maybe.  But I wonder if others do that?
> > So, people who can have both singular and plural "they", what
> > -self/-selves
> > form would you use in this sentence?
> >
> > "If anyone calls, tell them to go f**k _________."
> >
> > I don't think I'm aware of a themself/theirself form.  [Err... ok,
> > Altavista
> > gives 26353 'themself' references and 1158 'theirself' ones.  But
> > the first
> > hits that come up are from grammar sites telling you not to use
> > them...]
>
> >      *Muke!
> -
>
> Well, in that example i would use _themselves_, because the semantic
> meaning is plural to me, maybe i'm assuming that more than one person
> would call :-) .  But i have used _themself_ in singular contexts....for
> instance to change your example, "If the tax collector calls, tell them
> to go F themself."
I would also use "themselves" in the top example (If anyone calls, tell
them to go f*** themselves), but in the example Steg gave just above
this, I would say it like this:  If the tax collector calls, tell him to
go f*** himself.  Probably because if I'm talking about a specific
person, I'd be more inclined to use a singular pronoun than if I were
just talking about anybody, or maybe even several anybodies, you know?

Nicole
--
nicole.eap@snet.net
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