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Re: Kinda NATLANG: English stupidities: "You both"

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Wednesday, June 12, 2002, 21:44
Christophe Grandsire wrote:
> I wonder why *"you many" is not used -)
Probably because "you both" and "you all" can both be rephrased as "both of you", "all of you", but "many of you" would mean only "a large portion of you (pl.)", and thus is a different construction.
> or the use of the comparative instead of a superlative with a superlative > meaning when only two things are compared)
Well, that's a distinction that's fading. I suspect most people would consider something like "He wore his better tie" (in a case where he only owns two) to be pedantic, and would instead say "He worse his best tie". However, "He wore one of his better ties" can be used to mean "a tie that is relatively high quality", while "one of his best ties" would mean nearly the best tie.
> it's just normal that the pronoun > system adopts a way to mark duality as well as plurality in all persons, > despite the initial lack of number of "you".
Incidentally, in my usage, "you" is singular (altho "your" can be used for any number), "you two" is dual, and "y'all" is three or more. "Y'all" can NOT be used for two people, altho "you guys" *can* be used for two or more. And as "you two" lacks a possessive (well, I sometimes will say "the two of you's" or "you two's", but those sound awkward) while "y'all" does, I therefore have "your" which can be one or two (or sometimes more than two) and "Y'all's" which can only refer to a group of three or more. So, a chart of my idiolect's second person pronouns: Case Singular Dual Plural Nom/Acc You You two Y'all <--------------You guys---------------> Gen Your Your (the two of you's/you two's) Y'all's/Your <------------You guys's/Your-----------------> Possesive? Yours Yours/(You(r) two's) Y'all's('s)/Yours <----------You(r) guys's/Yours-------------------> Clitic <---------------------------Ya-----------------------------> For a dual possessive (is that the right term?), I'd be more likely to rephrase the sentence to avoid the necessity, like, instead of saying "Is this your two's?", I'd say "Does this belong to you two?" Meanwhile, "we" and "they" have no such reluctance to be used for duals. Probably it's because I still perceive the "all" in "y'all" (which is also why I find "ya'll" such an annoying spelling) -- "There's no such thing as 'cool'. Everyone's just a big dork or nerd, you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." - overheard ICQ: 18656696 AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42