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Okay, so I brought up what I find to be a curious error in Stephen King's, Under The Dome, and I need some Southern-style back up (or smackdown, if I'm wrong.)
It's from this post, but here's the pertinent part -
It's from this post, but here's the pertinent part -
So, in the American South, is "y'all" ever used to address or instruct one person? My experience of nearly forty years below the Mason-Dixon line tells me no, but I'll admit I'm a pretty Yank-ified Southerner.But then there's this -
"Kid, listen to me. Y'all drop down on your knees and--"
and
"Kid? Would y'all stop doing that? It's driving me bugshit."
and
"Why y'all doin' it?" the Army guy asked.
and
"Why don't y'all quit it on the rocks and do somethin about those cows?"
Now in each case above, it's one guy (from the South) outside the Dome speaking to a kid, all by himself, on the inside of the Dome. I know that Maine is very far away from the South, but regardless of where you are and assuming you've ever spoken to an American Southerner or seen a film depiction of one, I'm still guessing you can see what the trouble is with his usage of "y'all". It's just weird to me that no one in the process didn't say, "Um, Steve, 'y'all' is a collective. You don't address or instruct one person as 'y'all'." "Y'all" is completely interchangeable with its Northern idiomatic equivalent "you guys." So, if you were telling one kid to stop throwing rocks against the Dome, you'd never say, "Why don't you guys quit it on the rocks and do somethin' about those cows?"
Odd. Odd, odd, odd. Perhaps when you're as big as Stephen King, you don't get edited.