Yes (1)
If you are asked by a friend “Have you got a fiver” and your answer is “Yes”, then the meaning of your answer will depend on your intonation. You could say yes with a falling intonation and disappoint your friend. You would be suggesting that the question was about your current cash flow. Or you could say yes with a rising intonation. This would be the expected answer and show that you have understood your friend’s utterance and may be ready to lend him some money. So yes can mean different things depending on the intonation used. (Katamba, Francis: “Phonology: Beyond the Segment”, in: Culpeper 2009: 75)
You (1)
Originally, you (like its corresponding form ye) was used to address more than one person, i.e. it was the plural form and contrasted with thou (and thee) as the singular form. It then began to be used as a polite form of the singular, as an alternative to thou. Then a second change took place, and ye was gradually eliminated, you becoming the norm. Originally, ye had been used for the subject case, and you for the object case ( Crystal 2005: 307). In other words, historically speaking, you does not correspond to German du, and it does not even correspond to German ihr, it corresponds to German euch! In recent times, a new form is appearing, you all, sometimes spelt y’all, which is nearer to the pronunciation, this being a monosyllabic word (rhyming with call ). It is often generally used to refer to more than one person, in which case it would make up for the missing form which allows to distinguish between singular and plural, but, contrary to what one would expect, it is also used to refer to a single person (Crystal 2005: 449-52). To make matters more difficult, there is also the American form you guys, which is generally used to refer to more than one person, but, again contrary to what one would expect, it can include women, and is often even used to refer to several people none of whom is male. If this form is more frequently found in America, in Britain we find the traditional form youse, again theoretically used for the plural but also occasionally used for the singular. Who said that English was easy?
You (2)
In the following exchange, you is perfectly neutral: A: Tom, this is Jane. B: How do you do? C: How do you do? English, unlike French (and many other languages) does not make the TV-distinction, a distinction between an informal (tu) and a formal (vous) pronoun when addressing someone. This is not to say that English does not make similar distinctions. In this exchange, How do you do? could be replaced by Nice to meet you or Hi or How are you doing? These represent different layers of formality, and the distinction is arguably even subtler than that between tu and vous. Native speakers use the right form intuitively. Nobody says Hi when being introduced to the Queen. It is also the forms of address which allow distinctions to be made. Is it Tom or Mr Jones or Sir Tom Jones or Professor Jones? The same goes for the form introductions are made: Jane, may I introduce you to Tom? or just Jane – Tom. It may also play a role who is named first. According to certain forms of etiquette, the man should always be the referent, with the woman as the addressee. For some, this etiquette plays a role, for others it does not. Also non-verbal language plays a role. Do you shake hands or not, do you stand very close to each other or not, do you look each other in the eye or not? When one describes these conventions in detail they may sound terribly complicated, but people do not in general experience them as complicated. They are part of our knowledge of language. (adapted from Widdowson 2007: 33-6)
Younger than ever
In the well-known comedy sketch “Dinner for One”, one of the guests, Mr Winterbottom, tells the 90-year-old hostess: “You look younger than ever, love”. Mr Winterbottom does not speak English with the Standard Pronunciation. He pronounces the words younger and love not with the vowel of cut, but with the vowel of put. This pronunciation is typical of Northerly areas of England. In the final bout he tells her to drink up, using the colloquial word sup for drink , and tells her – or himself – to “sup up”, again using the vowel of put for both words. Few people realise this, as the actual wording of the dialogue is not at all important, but it is a nice example of regional variation in pronunciation. The comedy sketch, although well-known in Germany , is completely unknown in England.
Your name is mud
“If you forget her birthday again, your name is mud.” This does not seem to make much sense, as a result of which it is often claimed that the expression goes back to a person’s name, to a certain Dr Mudd, the doctor who treated John Wilkes Boothes, Lincoln’s assassin. This, however, cannot be true. The expression first appears at least four decades before Dr Mudd. It is based on an old slang sense of mud, ‘simpleton’, ‘fool’. (Quinion 2009: 351-2)