Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxi!houxm!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uicsl!dinitz
From: dinitz@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: person - (nf)
Message-ID: <3198@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Oct-83 22:53:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.3198
Posted: Tue Oct 11 22:53:17 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Oct-83 05:39:56 EDT
Lines: 42

#R:tekmdp:-228200:uicsl:8600022:000:1863
uicsl!dinitz    Oct 11 15:49:00 1983

My pet armchair-theory is that "people" vs "persons" is a cyclical
phenomenon, like slang expressions (e.g. hep vs hip vs with-it, cool vs
neato vs groovy, or far-out vs outrageous vs wierd), or specialized
jargon (e.g.  Data Processing vs Operations Research vs Management
Information Systems vs Executive Decision Support Systems).  People who
use "persons" today may just want to sound different from everyone
else.  But the fad catches on, and soon lots of people say "persons."
My guess is that soon this will sound too "normal," and some
non-conformist will start using "people" again -- the cycle becomes
manifest.

However, there is some puzzling evidence to be mentioned.  At least to
this native speaker, "people" is not completely interchangable with
"persons."  For example, the phrase I used above, "lots of people,"
would have sounded very awkward to me if it had been "?lots of
persons."  On the other hand, "many persons" sounds as good to me as
"many people."

As far as semantics goes, "persons" (for me) conjurs up the notion of
individuals -- that is, discrete human beings.  "People" is more
group-like, more general.  "Persons" seems to pick out certain members
from a group, whereas "people" seems to collect a subset.
Compare:
	"Most people don't like espresso, but some do."
	"*Most persons don't like espresso, but some do."
"Persons" feels strange when speaking of uniformity or homogeneity.
Compare:
	"Some people are not trustworthy." [implies a generalization]
	"Some persons are not trustworthy." [I have certain ones in mind]
Compare:
	"A number of people do that." [emphasizes the size of the group]
	"A number of persons do that." [singles out the few individuals, and
draws attention to them, rather than their number]

Does anyone have any evidence that confirms or runs counter to this?


Rick Dinitz
...!uiucdcs!uicsl!dinitz