Some people perceive "you guys" as masculine, even in the vocative case.
Others, such as myself, perceive it as having no element of gender. "You guys" is a casual, inclusive vocative plural, completely unrelated to the masculine nominative singular "guy".
But I'm not here to convince you that I'm right.
I'm here to convince someone to map it.
One of the great moments of internet sociolinguistics is the Pop vs. Soda map, which shows the geographical patterns of American soft drink nomenclature.
Someone should do the same for whether "you guys" is masculine or gender-inclusive!
Based on the way people on the internet talk about the "you guys" question, I strongly suspect there's some geographical element to how it's received. A crowdsourced mapping project, like Pop vs. Soda, could answer this question.
The technology exists, as evidenced by Pop vs. Soda. The answer would be informative, and help people better tailor their communication to various audiences. Surely there must be someone out there looking for a linguistics research project idea!
3 comments:
Here in Detroit guy singular is masculine gender, guys plural are gender neutral. Gay is also gender neutral. All the lesbians here self-identify as gay.
I would love to see that. A Facebook friend thinks it is generational, but it doesn't look that way to me.
"Gay" is interesting! Here in Toronto, it's kind of masculine, but not exclusively. "She is gay" makes sense in a way that "He's a lesbian" doesn't. But, at the same time, best practice is to say "gay and lesbian" (or LGBTQ2S+, depending on the concept you're trying to express) rather than assuming that "gay" will encompass everyone.
I haven't noticed any generational patterns in "you guys", but also I can't tell who is avoiding using it because they perceive it to be gendered. If I've never heard the phrase uttered by a specific age group, I wouldn't notice.
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