>
>Personally, I don't understand all the fuss about singular "they." After
>all, we use "you" for both singular and plural. At one time "you were" was
>used only in reference to more than one "you"; "you was" was used when
>speaking to a single person. "You was" has been lost, and we function
>quite well (and make ourselves perfectly clear) with only "you were,"
>whether we're speaking of one person or more than one. Why not do the same
>with "they"?


Jane,

    I usually lurk on this list, but I simply cannot resist a comment here.

    The problem of the second person plural has been solved!

    One potentially useful contribution of Southern is a distinctive
second-person plural: y'all. It is written as a contraction of you all, at
least until it catches of. Hollywood Southern notwithstanding, the
contraction is only proper as the second person plural, and therefore is
used with the plural form of the verb with which it is paired.

    Alas, it does not seem to catch on.


                                      . . . chris


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 Chris Newland
 Department of Psychology
 Auburn University
 Auburn, Alabama 36849-5212
V: 334 844-6479    F: 334 844-4447
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