Somebody vs. Someone, Everybody vs. Everyone, Nobody vs. No One

Hi there. You have A Way with Words.

Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant. My name is Julie. I’m calling from San Francisco.

Hey, Julie. Welcome.

What’s up?

Thanks. So I’m calling about kind of a quirk I noticed this last summer. I’m a journalism student at San Francisco State and got a dream job covering the Giants this past season.

And obviously with baseball, there are a ton of weird linguistic quirks. But one thing I noticed just talking with players and coaches and transcribing interviews for many, many hours is that there was this weird preference for somebody, nobody, everybody versus like anyone, everyone, no one.

And naturally for me, I would say I would have the preference for the one versus the body, but I’m from the West Coast. And I got the impression that this was most prominent among players from the South, which there’s a ton of players from Major League Baseball do come out of the South.

But the thing that I also noticed was that it was kind of this almost dialectical feature, like it spread to other players from other places, too, even players that didn’t have English as their first language. So I wasn’t sure if this is something that’s more common in Southern dialects.

I didn’t know if it was something you could look up on the DARE database or if you guys knew anything about it, but I was just kind of curious if this was something anyone else had noticed.

So you’re hearing them say pronouns like somebody instead of someone or anybody instead of anyone. There is, as far as I know, no research that has been done on the distribution of pronouns like this in the United States. No regional maps have been drawn. Nobody gathered a lot of data just for these kinds of pronouns. It’s really mostly unexplored territory.

I don’t think, however, I consider myself a relatively informed linguist. I don’t believe, however, despite the absence of this work, that there’s any regionality to it at all. I think what you’re hearing is a formality versus informality difference.

Players, the culture of players is to speak informally, and there is a slightly more informal tone to anybody, somebody, everybody than there is anyone, someone, everyone.

Yeah, it just seems like it’s pretty consistent even talking to the press, which is what made me think that it was just sort of, I think, when you’re with a group of people for six months, day and night, it seems to make sense that they would almost form their own dialect.

Well, they certainly borrow from each other.

Yeah, no question. People who are working in the same enterprise and the same working hard together all the time, you absolutely start to talk like one another.

Yeah, it made sense. I was just kind of curious because there are so many leaders on that team that are from the South. So I wondered if it was a trickle-down thing or what that was.

Yeah, I get that. But my belief is here that what you’re hearing is a formality difference. And really important, though, you may know the answer to this, is do you feel like there’s a culture to urge these guys not to put on airs and to act too big for their britches and to keep their arrogance down despite whatever kind of money they might be making or what kind of adulation they might get from the crowd?

But as I understand it, in baseball, your teammates will put you down if you act too big for your britches, right?

I mean, yeah, absolutely, especially with the rookies. I’ve talked to some of the older veterans, and they say that’s actually part of their job. They view it as part of their job when rookies come up and they’re doing really well to make sure that they don’t get too tall to walk in the door.

I like that expression. Too tall to walk in the door. I love that.

Yeah, so that couples with what I was saying about kind of stressing their casualness and their informality and is a way of saying I’m not stuck up. I’m not too good for everyone. And I think anybody, everybody, somebody, I think that does that just a little bit.

Otherwise, the pronouns are identical. They have no functional difference whatsoever. Anybody and anyone are functionally exactly the same. It’s just that there’s the pragmatics change a little bit.

Can we go back to the top of this and just say congratulations on that gig, by the way. To be a cup reporter and reporting on one of the top baseball teams must be amazing.

Yes, I got very lucky. I’m very excited about it, so thank you. I’m hoping to continue doing it next season.

Not to mention sports writing is the best writing in the newspaper, right?

Yeah, they let you get away with a lot more.

Well, they need to. I don’t quite fit it in the press box. I’m the short girl with lots of tattoos and bright colored hair next to all the old dudes.

I got to tell you, it sounds like you’re going to show them.

I hope so.

Well, good luck and call us again sometime when you find out more like this.

All right. Thanks so much. Have a good one.

All right. Take care.

Thanks, Julie.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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