Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 15:32:13 EDT

From: Michael Montgomery N270053[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]VM.SC.EDU

Subject: No subject given



Whether to whet your appetite or no, y'all who are anticipating the

forthcoming _American Speech_ essay might want to have a look at a

paper written by yours truly in the Spring 1996 issue of _The SECOL

Review_ that deals with the semantics and pragmatics of _y'all_ in

considerable detail. Not only does it cite unambiguous examples of

singular usage, but it offers some hypotheses for how that usage

developed as an extension from the plural. The title of the essay

is "The Future of Southern American English." Let's see whether

the evidence of Bailey/Tillery is consistent with one or another of

the hypotheses there.



Michael Montgomery, Dept of English, Univ of South Carolina



P.S.: Copies of _The SECOL Review_ and membership in SECOL are available

through Prof. Marvin K L Ching at the Dept of English, Univ of Memphis,

Memphis TN 38152.