It is necessary to consider the lexical units that have been given in our example.
First of all, we note that all lexical units can be divided into content words (proper and
common nouns, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, past participles) and auxiliary parts of
speech (conjunctions). The corpus of lexical units studied is the following: proper
nouns (Dahntahn, Norside, Easliberty, Sahside) – 4; common nouns (Jag off) – 1;
adjectives (nebby) – 1; pronouns (yinz) – 1; adverbs (Hown come) – 1; participles
(ascared, aposed) – 2; conjunctions (N'at) – 1.
It should be considered each lexical unit in particular.
Yinz is the most widespread and most characteristic lexeme in Pittsburgh
Speech, which is widely used in oral and written forms. Our folklore text of
Christmas carol is not the exception. This very usage of the given word manipulates
the consciousness of the inhabitants of the city due to the self-identification of the
Pittsburgh. The example of this popular Pittsburgh lexical unit «Yinz» functioning are
the following lines of the carol:
Yinz better watch aht
Yinz better not cry
Yinz better not paht
I'm tellin' yinz hown come −
Derived from:
You better watch out
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why
The text deliberately uses this lexical unit to convey the spirit of cohesiveness and
self-identification to the inhabitants of the city (first of all the carol is aimed at the "old
-term residents" and the youth who are most vulnerable to manipulation and influence)
and remind them of their uniqueness, culture and customs.
Residents of the city of Pittsburgh are sometimes called Yinzers in English, the
basis of which is the pronoun of the 2nd person plural of the Yinz (You). This lexical
unit has been in the semiotic resource in this area since the colonial era when it was
brought to the region by Scottish and Irish emigrants. The main function of its usage
since then has hardly changed and is to addressing to two or more people. At the same
time, during the XX century and at the beginning of the XXI century the pronoun
"yinz" has gained the new meaning and thus has became one of the most frequently
cited examples of Pittsburgh Speech and the most popular signs of the Pittsburgh area.
The word "yinz" appears on stickers on the car bumpers, T-shirts, which are labelled
as "Yinz are in Steeler Country", which means "You are in Pittsburgh" [19].
Today, the pronoun "yinz" has become a productive morpheme, that is, "yinz" is
now a meaningful element that can be used in a new way, in particular in the words
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