Y' KNOW
I must have been around eleven or twelve years of age, when I was severely put down by a friend for a speech mannerism.
His rather stern denunciation has remained with me all these years and I can be nothing but grateful for his having taught me to watch out for such a lapse in my own speech habits and the hear them in the speech of others.
My transgression was one which proved to have been endemic in my family. I would make a statement and then interject the words: ”See what I mean?”.
We were walking along the street one morning on our way to school when I said something and dropped that question at the end of it. I must have done it several times, because he stopped walking turned toward me and said in an exasperated tone of voice:” No, I do NOT see what you mean!” I can't until our find a better way to say it!” He was right,too. I knew that and agreed with his rather sharp analysis. We didn't say much the rest of the way to school that morning but I remember that verbal “put down” - gratefully.
The current “See what I mean”?
It is much shorter and it is ubiquitous and seems to go with all walks of life, most often among sports stars and entertainment people. I wonder if you say it - “Y' know?”
Sometimes is is with no question mark. It's just there, bare a ugly, between normal sentences and for no reason whatsoever. It is never said with the expectation of a reply of any kind, and, as with my expression of long ago. shows a very weak word power, an undeveloped vocabulary in the speakers experience.
The football player, being interviewed may say. “We come back out onto the field , y' know. Coach had said, in the locker room y' know. Y' know, how it was gonna to be rough out there y' know - like “do or die,” y' know! So I looked up and that bunch linin' up in front of us and they looked like a concrete wall they did, y' know and I say to the guy next to me, “y' know. This ain't gonna be easy!”
And those imaginary comments are not at all unusual, either. The number of “y' know”insertions is not exaggerated at all. Listen to some of the interviews yourself and prepare to be amazed at how often the “y know?” inquiry can be inserted.
Hold a conversation with just about anyone and you will hear the term “Y' know?” When I hear it I am tempted to turn on the sayer and do what Billy Arthur did to me that morning walking to school - turn to them and flatly an say: “No! I do NOT know!”
Check your own normal flow of speech. Is it interrupted by far too many “Y' know” decorations? By which you , of course, admitting you did not say whatever you were saying very well and you hope they understood your poor effort to do so.
You've got to watch this sort of thing, y' know. People will judge what you are and what you can do, y' know, rather harshly, too, y' know.
Think about it. Guilty or Not Guilty?
A.L.M. October 23, 2002 [c564wds]
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