Pub Date : 2019-08-22DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0010
Allan Metcalf
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.
在20世纪，“伙计们”继续扩大，随着它变得更加普遍，它变得不那么特定。本章用许多例子说明了这种发展。起初，有一些具有扩展意义的异常值，然后更多，直到扩展的含义被包括在内而不引起注意。“Guy”和“guys”最初将其含义扩展到包括所有男性，从婴儿到老人。在这个过程中，他们摒弃了对社会地位低下或衣着褴褛的负面限制，所以“guy”现在通常只是对男性的中性称呼。而“guys”的范围更广，包括了女性。起初，就像埃德娜·费伯1911年的小说《笑的女孩》一样，这是一个混合的群体，在这种情况下，五名记者中的一名女性听众由另一名男性记者讲话。但如果“男人”可以包括一个女人，为什么不能包括所有的女人呢?雷切尔·克罗瑟斯(Rachel Crothers) 1911年的戏剧《他和她》(He and She)就是这样，剧中的“聪明的家伙”(wise guys)一词中，所有的“男人”都是女性。到20世纪中叶，在美国的大部分地区，“guys”是一种很少被注意到的第二人称复数代词。它也蔓延到了世界各地。即使在盖伊·福克斯的家乡英格兰约克，人们现在也会使用“你们这些家伙”，而就在20年前，这个词在这里还是闻不上的。
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Pub Date : 2019-08-22DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0013
Allan A. Metcalf
“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.
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Pub Date : 2019-08-22DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190669201.003.0014
Allan Metcalf
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.
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