Date: Tue, 24 Jan 1995 00:12:02 -0500

From: ALICE FABER faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]HASKINS.YALE.EDU

Subject: You guys



And while I'm at it, on the whole "you guys" thing... There was an AP story

today about citizen outrage in Japan about perceived government inefficiency

in response to the Kobe earthquake. The story ended with lots of person-on-

the-street quotes that I presume were translated from Japanese. From the story:

"A high school student told Chief Cabinet Secretary Kozo Igarashi: 'I

want you guys to do something, not as politicians but as human beings,

as soon as possible.'"

Is this simply a translation of a 2nd plu pronoun in Japanese? Or what? (The

article also notes that one of the other survivors speaking on a live national

tv dialog bet. survivors and government officials was specifically not using

the honorific style that people ordinarily use addressing leaders.

the honorific style that people ordinarily use addressing leaders.

There should be a close paren at the end of the last line, alas.

Anyway, I was just curious if anyone else had noticed this. The translation of

the student's remarks is certainly idiomatic English, but I was wondering

where the "you guys" came from.



Alice Faber

Faber[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]haskins.yale.edu