A Word With A Surprising Number of Definitions
javawizard
Language section of www.odd-info.com
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
wrote:
>The word "set" has over 100 meanings or uses. - from the American
>Language section of www.odd-info.com
The word "I" has millions of meanings: one meaning for each person who uses
it.
However that number of meanings is nothing compared with the number of
meanings of "you".
--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)
Athel Cornish-Bowden
<ma...@peterduncanson.net> said:
> On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:53:53 -0700 (PDT), javawizard <javaw...@aol.com>
> wrote:
>
>> The word "set" has over 100 meanings or uses. - from the American
>> Language section of www.odd-info.com
>
> The word "I" has millions of meanings: one meaning for each person who uses
> it.
>
> However that number of meanings is nothing compared with the number of
> meanings of "you".
I thought I'd set my newsreader not to show me messages sent to more
than 3 news groups. I'll need to fix that.
I think "it" probably leaves both "I" and "you" far behind.
--
athel
Peter Groves
news:6mm50hF...@mid.individual.net...
You're all (except the OP) confusing 'meaning' with 'referent': the meaning
of a deictic like "you" (if you insist on calling it that) can only be
expressed within the grammar; its referent for any particular utterance,
however, depends entirely upon context. The noun "echidna" has only one
meaning, but many thousands of referents in Australia and New Guinea.
Peter Duncanson (BrE)
wrote:
>"Athel Cornish-Bowden" <athe...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
>news:6mm50hF...@mid.individual.net...
>> On 2008-10-27 16:16:14 +0100, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)"
>> <ma...@peterduncanson.net> said:
>>
>>> On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:53:53 -0700 (PDT), javawizard <javaw...@aol.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> The word "set" has over 100 meanings or uses. - from the American
>>>> Language section of www.odd-info.com
>>>
>>> The word "I" has millions of meanings: one meaning for each person who
>>> uses
>>> it.
>>>
>>> However that number of meanings is nothing compared with the number of
>>> meanings of "you".
>>
>> I thought I'd set my newsreader not to show me messages sent to more than
>> 3 news groups. I'll need to fix that.
>>
>> I think "it" probably leaves both "I" and "you" far behind.
>>
>>
>> --
>> athel
>>
>
>You're all (except the OP) confusing 'meaning' with 'referent':
My reply to the OP used "meaning" in a non-technical sense. My post was
playful. Others responded in a similar vein.
> the meaning
>of a deictic like "you" (if you insist on calling it that) can only be
>expressed within the grammar; its referent for any particular utterance,
>however, depends entirely upon context. The noun "echidna" has only one
>meaning, but many thousands of referents in Australia and New Guinea.
>
--
Mike Lyle
> The word "set" has over 100 meanings or uses. - from the American
> Language section of www.odd-info.com
Wasn't it you who told us this a few weeks ago? And if so, didn't you
notice our telling you that AUE users already know that kind of thing?
And if it wasn't, my apologies; but, well, we do.
--
Mike.
Chuck Riggs
<ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:53:53 -0700 (PDT), javawizard <javaw...@aol.com>
>wrote:
>
>>The word "set" has over 100 meanings or uses. - from the American
>>Language section of www.odd-info.com
>
>The word "I" has millions of meanings: one meaning for each person who uses
>it.
There are lots of us, sure, but in each case, "I" refers to the
speaker or to the writer: only one meaning, there.
>However that number of meanings is nothing compared with the number of
>meanings of "you".
I know only two meanings, well covered by "you" and "yous", if you
ever need to go that far.
--
Regards,
Chuck Riggs
Near Dublin, Ireland
Chuck Riggs
Can one of us speak for all of us? In other words, Mike, what's this
we shit, kimosabe?
pritsy
Is the sibilant in "yous" always vocalized? I have no taped "Sopranos"
shows to check.
Roland Hutchinson
Do you mean "voiced" (pronounced [z])? Yes, I believe it is. The
alternate, probably more common, spelling "youse" suggests the
pronunciation more clearly.
--
Roland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food.
NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to
remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it.
Adam Funk
>>However that number of meanings is nothing compared with the number of
>>meanings of "you".
>
> I know only two meanings, well covered by "you" and "yous", if you
> ever need to go that far.
"You all" has the same semantics as "yous", right?
--
Unix is a user-friendly operating system. It's just very choosy about
its friends.
Mike Lyle
All for one , and one for all, I reckon. And the fecundity of the word
"set" has arisen several times in a.u.e. But I'll revise, as follows:
"And if it wasn't, my apologies; but, well, apart from those of us who
don't, we do."
--
Mike.
Chuck Riggs
<my.sp...@verizon.net> wrote:
>pritsy wrote:
>
>> Chuck Riggs wrote:
>>> On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:16:14 +0000, "Peter Duncanson (BrE)"
>>> <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Mon, 27 Oct 2008 06:53:53 -0700 (PDT), javawizard
>>>><javaw...@aol.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>The word "set" has over 100 meanings or uses. - from the American
>>>>>Language section of www.odd-info.com
>>>>
>>>>The word "I" has millions of meanings: one meaning for each person
>>>>who uses it.
>>>
>>> There are lots of us, sure, but in each case, "I" refers to the
>>> speaker or to the writer: only one meaning, there.
>>>
>>>>However that number of meanings is nothing compared with the number of
>>>>meanings of "you".
>>>
>>> I know only two meanings, well covered by "you" and "yous", if you
>>> ever need to go that far.
>>
>> Is the sibilant in "yous" always vocalized? I have no taped "Sopranos"
>> shows to check.
>
>Do you mean "voiced" (pronounced [z])? Yes, I believe it is. The
>alternate, probably more common, spelling "youse" suggests the
>pronunciation more clearly.
Not to me it doesn't. "Yous", pronounced "youz", is clearly not
pronounced "yoice", which is not so clear with "youse". I don't see
how anyone familiar with the language could mispronounce "yous",
seeing it in print.
Chuck Riggs
<mike_l...@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
I, at least, am satisfied with that, kimosabe.
James Silverton
> Not to me it doesn't. "Yous", pronounced "youz", is clearly
> not pronounced "yoice", which is not so clear with "youse". I
> don't see how anyone familiar with the language could
> mispronounce "yous", seeing it in print.
I thought the 2nd person plural "youse" (not "yous" in my recollection,
but pronounced "yooz" or /juz/) was an Irish word or a New York one
(probably imported from Ireland). I seem to remember hearing it in
Glasgow too but I'm not sure of that. I note that you live near Dublin;
do you find the usage common there?
--
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
Glenn Knickerbocker
> Is the sibilant in "yous" always vocalized? I have no taped "Sopranos"
> shows to check.
In New York, yeah. In Pittsburgh or Akron, prob'ly not.
ŹR
Peter Groves
news:gea5h9$84e$1...@registered.motzarella.org...
In what's called "Broad Australian" (basically, a rural and working-class
variety) 'youse' is the 2nd person plural (with a voiced fricative) and
usually assumed to derive from Irish English. What's interesting about
these new plural pronouns like Southern "y'all" is that they are sometimes
recruited as "polite" or formal singular pronouns, like French "vous" or
Middle English "ye/yow". It's almost as though 2nd person formal singular,
a form found in all other European languages and in English up to the
eighteenth century, represents a sort of gap in Present English which these
other varieties are 'trying' to fill.
Peter Groves
Melbourne
Einde O'Callaghan
replaced the familiar "thou" by the end of the 17th century.
I don't think that the second person plural "youse" (Irish, Scottish and
Australian) or "y'all" (South-Eastern USA) could be called formal by any
stretch of the imagination.
Regards, Einde O'Callaghan
Peter Groves
news:6ms3c8F...@mid.individual.net...
This is a confused way of putting it. As I said, English had a 2nd person
formal singular up to the eighteenth century, before the formal and informal
pronouns coalesced in the neutral singular (and plural) pronoun "you".
> I don't think that the second person plural "youse" (Irish, Scottish and
> Australian) or "y'all" (South-Eastern USA) could be called formal by any
> stretch of the imagination.
>
> Regards, Einde O'Callaghan
Fairly obviously I'm not using 'formal' in a colloquial sense here but to
label a structural linguistic opposition. When a barber in N. Carolina says
to his (singular) customer "Y'all come back now, y'hear?" he is clearly
using "y'all" in the way the French use "vous", the Germans "Sie", and so
on. .
Chuck Riggs
<not.jim....@verizon.net> wrote:
> Chuck wrote on Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:49:34 +0000:
>
>
>> Not to me it doesn't. "Yous", pronounced "youz", is clearly
>> not pronounced "yoice", which is not so clear with "youse". I
>> don't see how anyone familiar with the language could
>> mispronounce "yous", seeing it in print.
>
>I thought the 2nd person plural "youse" (not "yous" in my recollection,
>but pronounced "yooz" or /juz/) was an Irish word or a New York one
>(probably imported from Ireland). I seem to remember hearing it in
>Glasgow too but I'm not sure of that. I note that you live near Dublin;
>do you find the usage common there?
I rarely hear it here. I most closely associate it with Mafia movies,
the denizens of New Jersey and with people living in other parts of
America who are from that area.
Bohgosity BumaskiL
Y'all: Southern States, probably heard well into Nebraska. Sometimes
used as a name for Americans in Canada.
Youse Guys: Same thing in New Jersey, and I've heard it from
elsewhere.
Yuz or OlluhYuz: I've heard this, and I don't place it from anywhere.
A British neighbour says she heard it from California and the
Carolinas, maybe even Texas.
In a thread entitled "A Word With A Surprising Number of Definitions,
On Oct 30, 9:23 am, Chuck Riggs <chri...@eircom.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 13:12:10 -0400, "James Silverton"
>
Bill McCray
<brew...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> wrote:
> Ye: Formal plural of you, archaic.
> Y'all: Southern States, probably heard well into Nebraska. Sometimes
> used as a name for Americans in Canada.
> Youse Guys: Same thing in New Jersey, and I've heard it from
> elsewhere.
> Yuz or OlluhYuz: I've heard this, and I don't place it from anywhere.
> A British neighbour says she heard it from California and the
> Carolinas, maybe even Texas.
You guys: probably northern U.S.; now appearing in Kentucky
You lot: British, I think.
Bill
----------------------------------------------------------------
Reverse parts of the user name and ISP name for my e-address
R H Draney
>
>On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:49:03 -0700 (PDT), Bohgosity BumaskiL
><brew...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> wrote:
>
>> Ye: Formal plural of you, archaic.
>> Y'all: Southern States, probably heard well into Nebraska. Sometimes
>> used as a name for Americans in Canada.
>> Youse Guys: Same thing in New Jersey, and I've heard it from
>> elsewhere.
>> Yuz or OlluhYuz: I've heard this, and I don't place it from anywhere.
>> A British neighbour says she heard it from California and the
>> Carolinas, maybe even Texas.
>
>You guys: probably northern U.S.; now appearing in Kentucky
>You lot: British, I think.
You've missed one..."yins" (spelling imputed), a contraction of "you ones"....r
--
Little-known fact: About 2% of the famous
quotations credited to "Anonymous" were actually
originated by Jasper D Anonymous, a 14th-century
maker of carriage wheels.
Chuck Riggs
wrote:
>Bill McCray filted:
>>
>>On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:49:03 -0700 (PDT), Bohgosity BumaskiL
>><brew...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> wrote:
>>
>>> Ye: Formal plural of you, archaic.
>>> Y'all: Southern States, probably heard well into Nebraska. Sometimes
>>> used as a name for Americans in Canada.
>>> Youse Guys: Same thing in New Jersey, and I've heard it from
>>> elsewhere.
>>> Yuz or OlluhYuz: I've heard this, and I don't place it from anywhere.
>>> A British neighbour says she heard it from California and the
>>> Carolinas, maybe even Texas.
>>
>>You guys: probably northern U.S.; now appearing in Kentucky
>>You lot: British, I think.
>
>You've missed one..."yins" (spelling imputed), a contraction of "you ones"....r
I don't recall hearing either one. Where have you run across "yins"?
Bill McCray
Wait! I just noticed this. I didn't know that I had filted. I
didn't mean to filt. I couldn't have meant to filt because I don't
know what it means. What is it that I am being accused of here?
Bill, an apparent filter
> >>
> >>On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:49:03 -0700 (PDT), Bohgosity BumaskiL
> >><brew...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Ye: Formal plural of you, archaic.
> >>> Y'all: Southern States, probably heard well into Nebraska. Sometimes
> >>> used as a name for Americans in Canada.
> >>> Youse Guys: Same thing in New Jersey, and I've heard it from
> >>> elsewhere.
> >>> Yuz or OlluhYuz: I've heard this, and I don't place it from anywhere.
> >>> A British neighbour says she heard it from California and the
> >>> Carolinas, maybe even Texas.
> >>
> >>You guys: probably northern U.S.; now appearing in Kentucky
> >>You lot: British, I think.
> >
> >You've missed one..."yins" (spelling imputed), a contraction of "you ones"....r
----------------------------------------------------------------
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
> On 30 Oct 2008 15:19:33 -0700, R H Draney <dadoc...@spamcop.net>
> wrote:
[second-person plural]
> >You've missed one..."yins" (spelling imputed), a contraction of "you ones"....r
>
> I don't recall hearing either one. Where have you run across "yins"?
The person I know in N.M. who says it is from Pennsylvania. I've
heard it occasionally in Pittsburgh, and you'll see it in jocular
treatises on "Picksburgh" English. The other spelling is "yuns", and
the vowel probably ranges between the "cook" vowel /U/, the "kick"
vowel /I/, and a schwa--a pretty small range, for a lot of us
Americans.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinz>
--
Jerry Friedman
CDB
>>> Bill McCray filted:
> Wait! I just noticed this. I didn't know that I had filted. I
> didn't mean to filt. I couldn't have meant to filt because I don't
> know what it means. What is it that I am being accused of here?
> Bill, an apparent filter
Does the phrase "sirent but deadry" mean anything to you?
R H Draney
>
>> On 30 Oct 2008 15:19:33 -0700, R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> >Bill McCray filted:
>
>Wait! I just noticed this. I didn't know that I had filted. I
>didn't mean to filt. I couldn't have meant to filt because I don't
>know what it means. What is it that I am being accused of here?
>
>Bill, an apparent filter
See http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.silent/msg/a932f8af8627956c for
the standard explanation....r
--
"Governor Palin, I served with Dan Quayle.
I knew Dan Quayle; Dan Quayle was a friend of mine.
Governor Palin, you're no Dan Quayle."
Frank ess
Chuck Riggs wrote:
> On 30 Oct 2008 15:19:33 -0700, R H Draney <dado...@spamcop.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Bill McCray filted:
>>>
>>> On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:49:03 -0700 (PDT), Bohgosity BumaskiL
>>> <brew...@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ye: Formal plural of you, archaic.
>>>> Y'all: Southern States, probably heard well into Nebraska.
>>>> Sometimes used as a name for Americans in Canada.
>>>> Youse Guys: Same thing in New Jersey, and I've heard it from
>>>> elsewhere.
>>>> Yuz or OlluhYuz: I've heard this, and I don't place it from
There was in my history a fellow from Chicaaguh who referred to
collceitve and singular everyone outside his own skin as "yez".
"Yez'll be sorry if yez don't do it while yez is in the neigborhood".
--
Frank ess
Bill McCray
wrote:
So a substitution should also be made for the "i"?
Bill
CDB
> On Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:29:17 -0400, "CDB" <belle...@sympatico.ca>
> wrote:
>
>> Bill McCray wrote:
>>>>> Bill McCray filted:
>>> Wait! I just noticed this. I didn't know that I had filted. I
>>> didn't mean to filt. I couldn't have meant to filt because I
>>> don't know what it means. What is it that I am being accused of
>>> here?
>>> Bill, an apparent filter
>> Does the phrase "sirent but deadry" mean anything to you?
> So a substitution should also be made for the "i"?
Just a passing thought. Making it mild. You've now had the Totally
Official explanation.
Chuck Riggs
Interesting article. Having never spent any time, if any at all, in
Pittsburgh, I've missed hearing yinz.
jerry_f...@yahoo.com
> >> wrote:
>
> >> >Bill McCray filted:
>
> >Wait! I just noticed this. I didn't know that I had filted. I
> >didn't mean to filt. I couldn't have meant to filt because I don't
> >know what it means. What is it that I am being accused of here?
>
> >Bill, an apparent filter
>
> See http://groups.google.com/group/alt.movies.silent/msg/a932f8af8627956cfor
> the standard explanation....r
And all this time I thought it was a back-formation from "filter".
--
Jerry Friedman knows the song "American Pie" and believes there was a
movie of the same name.
Chris Malcolm
Common in the south west of Scotland.
--
Chris Malcolm
Bob Cunningham
wrote:
I think I remember "you 'uns" in reading Southern US dialects. Seems
like that could be closely related to "yins".
--
Bob Cunningham, Southern California, USA. Western American English
Ian Jackson
<c...@holyrood.ed.ac.uk> writes
and came across a fisherman. He enquired how many he had caught. The
reply was "Yin young yin". He was puzzled as to why they spoke Chinese
in Scotland.
Of course, Glasgow's hero, Billy Connolly, acquired the epithet of 'The
Big Yin'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Connolly
http://www.billyconnolly.com/
--
Ian
Richard Fontana
Bob Cunningham sez:
>>> I don't recall hearing either one. Where have you run across "yins"?
>>
>>Common in the south west of Scotland.
>
> I think I remember "you 'uns" in reading Southern US dialects. Seems
> like that could be closely related to "yins".
I think it's the Pittsburgh region that is particularly known for "you
'uns".
--
Richard Fontana
John
news:97054fc5-633a-4a71...@26g2000hsk.googlegroups.com...
> The word "set" has over 100 meanings or uses. - from the American
> Language section of www.odd-info.com
That's not surprising, knowing how Americans speak. Check it out
in news:alt.american.usage and getback to us.
Haluk Skywalker
news:apudnQj4VZVfjbrU...@supernews.com...
Is there such a newsgroup? I thought American English is also discussed
here???
Chuck Riggs
All varieties of English come up for discussion in alt.usage.english
and in its sister group, alt.english.usage.
Frederick Williams
>
> The word "set" has over 100 meanings or uses. - from the American
> Language section of www.odd-info.com
Which word has the least number of definitions? I'd like to nominate
'scridlimette'.
--
Which of the seven heavens / Was responsible her smile /
Wouldn't be sure but attested / That, whoever it was, a god /
Worth kneeling-to for a while / Had tabernacled and rested.
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