You are viewing a single thread.
View all comments View context
14 points

In this sense, “chat” is just a second person plural pronoun

permalink
report
parent
reply
7 points

Yeah it’s substitutable for “y’all” in the sample usage.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Or if you use proper english, “you,” which is both singular and plural. Many languages have a specific second person plural, such as the Spanish ustedes (or vosotros in Spain and speaking informally), so those could be directly substituted for “chat.”

A fourth person, if it exists, would have to somehow refer to a “nothing” without giving it an entity, because that’s the only gap between first, second, and third person pronouns.

permalink
report
parent
reply
3 points

Proper English would use thee/thou as singular and you as plural. Royal we, excepting. Or maybe royal we is the 4th person since you are speaking as yourself but more as a representing some other entity? I dunno this 4th person thing is confusing me …

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

There’s no such thing as a “proper” form of a language

permalink
report
parent
reply
2 points

It’s not even a pronoun, it’s still a noun.

permalink
report
parent
reply
1 point

Not really, because it’s the indeterminate group watching you. If you say “you” or “you all”, it’s referring to the people interacting with you, not the audience. You have to break the fourth wall to initiate that interaction and make it second person

But streamers sometimes will sometimes, mid conversation with someone else, say “chat, can you get me the link to that?” And continue talking to the other person while waiting for it. They’ll also say “chat is saying I should ask you about XYZ”.

It’s a specific relationship that straddles the line between a second person and third person. They’re also usually not included in first person plural

permalink
report
parent
reply

People Twitter

!whitepeopletwitter@sh.itjust.works

Create post

People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.

RULES:

  1. Mark NSFW content.
  2. No doxxing people.
  3. Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
  4. No bullying or international politcs
  5. Be excellent to each other.
  6. Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it’s a major figure or a politician.

Community stats

  • 9.3K

    Monthly active users

  • 1.1K

    Posts

  • 52K

    Comments