Grammatical Error in Under the Dome

[baduizm1974]

Hello All! New member but not new reader. I have been reading Stephen King novels for about 20 years!

I wanted to address a grammatical error I found in Under the Dome. The soldier from South Carolina addresses the young boy as "y'all". This is incorrect. Y'all is a plural noun, not a singular noun. It is a contraction of "you all". Therefore, you would never say "y'all" to one person. I considered writing Mr. King a letter because I didn't want him to keep using y'all in the wrong way but then I found this forum instead. Maybe he will read this message! Oh, and by the way, I was born and raised and still live in South Carolina so I know what I'm talking about. I'm not just speaking out my butt.

[danie]

In the Wikipedia article about "y'all," there are some who believe the word can be used in a singular fashion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%27all

Also, if Mr. King used "ya'll" in dialogue, and we're going with using the word as plural only, it's not really considered a grammatical error of the writer, but that of the character, and that's just part of making conversations seem real.

[rjt65]

Ok first welcome--

2nd I am a NY'r so not the y'all expert--- but do know that in a grammatical sense you all would be plural

However being in natl and global companies I have several friends and business associates that have addressed me as y'all when directly referencing directly to me (yep southerners!) .... as part of the plural (like a Yankee fan) but used to addres moi-singular.

so though i cannot remember nor care (lazy me) to look up the use in UTD I can see when he addresses him he may mean all the peeps under the dome but a direct reference to the boy (analogous to my point of when people y'all me as a Yankee fan-so singular but as part of the plural Yankee universe)

capisce?

so mayhaps this is how it was meant..and not a grammatical error in the sense that peeps sometimes intermingle the plural and the singular?

maybe si maybe no?

Hello All! New member but not new reader. I have been reading Stephen King novels for about 20 years!

I wanted to address a grammatical error I found in Under the Dome. The soldier from South Carolina addresses the young boy as "y'all". This is incorrect. Y'all is a plural noun, not a singular noun. It is a contraction of "you all". Therefore, you would never say "y'all" to one person. I considered writing Mr. King a letter because I didn't want him to keep using y'all in the wrong way but then I found this forum instead. Maybe he will read this message! Oh, and by the way, I was born and raised and still live in South Carolina so I know what I'm talking about. I'm not just speaking out my butt.

[Kintaro]

You've clearly never been to Texas, where they say it to EVERYONE.....

[Lone Eagle]

I have to agree with you. But ya know, when you have a thousand monkeys pounding on a thousand computers, somewhere along the way, one of them is going to make a mistake.

[Sam Catoe]

I too found the mistake rather glaring, being from SC as well, but I see it more as just coming from someone who doesn't know better. Besides that, I have heard (and yes, even done so myself) y'all used improperly as a singular. Even with that, I have to say that no person from South Carolina would have sounded the way the soldier did in the book. We just don't speak that way down here.

Sorry Sai King, but ya missed it on that one.

[Bev Vincent]

Around here in Texas y'all is used as a singular form of address. The plural form is "all y'all"!

[Jay P Lang]

A little picky I think. I lived in NC for five years and got called 'y'all' all the time, even when it was just me. The thing about grammar in dialog is that its up to the character, how he sounds in the writers head. If he said 'Y'all' to one person in his head, then he said it in the story. I doubt King doesn't know what Y'all means.

[rose key]

Okay, I'm originally from New York, and now live in Florida, so I know nothing about this, except what I've heard from people with southern accents who live down here. I personally have been addressed as "y'all", as in "Y'all wanna git that work done before the end of the day" from an ex-boss. I've also heard people address their kids in the stores by saying "y'all" to the child.
Maybe they are not being grammatically correct in doing so (definately they are not) but that's the manner of speech used, and probably just a slang used here that is not the norm where you come from.

[danie]

Well, I see my Wikipedia link didn't work for some reason, but if you go to Wikipedia and type "y'all" in the search box, you should be able to read the article.