Thursday, February 01, 2007

Molly

Damn, girl, y'all left us too early. I'll bang some pots in your memory.

[Update: John Nichols has a fine tribute to Molly at The Nation.]

4 Comments:

Blogger BadTux said...

Pardner, that there is "you", not "y'all". "y'all" is the second person plural in Texan. If talking to Barry Bonds, a Texan would say "You ain't nothin' but a washed up old ball player." If talking to the San Francisco Giants, a Texan would say "Y'all ain't nothin' but a buncha overpaid whiner losers playin' a children's game." See the difference?

Now you better watch it, or Molly's ghost is gonna come down and get you all cobwallered!

-- Badtux the Former Texan Penguin

4:00 PM  
Blogger Rez Dog said...

If Molly would come back I'd gladly take a cobwallerin' from her. I thought all y'all was second person plural and y'all was singular. It's been a while since I was around native southern speakers.

4:09 PM  
Blogger BadTux said...

Now, Rez Dog, what you're doing is applying Latin grammar to Texan. It don't work like that. "You" is second person singlular. "Y'all" is second person plural. And "All y'all" is second person half-plural. Let me illustrate:

There is a demonstration. Someone steps off the sidewalk onto the street. A Texas cop then shouts "Hey! You! Back on the sidewalk!"

Five people step off the sidewalk onto the street. "Hey! Y'all get back on the sidewalk!".

Two of the people get back on the sidewalk, and the Texas cop then shouts, "All y'all get back on the sidewalk!". I.e., not just the two who got back on the sidewalk, but the other three also.

Confused? Texans aren't. They've known this stuff since they was knee high to a grasshopper, and ain't gonna get gobsmacked by it one little bit. The fact that Texan doesn't quite map to English or Latin when it comes to its verb declensions... well, a Texan would say that's our problem, not his.

-BT

7:32 PM  
Blogger Rez Dog said...

Molly would be pleased to know that a discussion of Texas grammar broke out in her wake.

5:42 AM  

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