An Analysis of the Impersonal You in Interviews of MLB Players and Managers

The impersonal you, similar to the impersonal pronoun one, is used in making generalizations or in situations where a subject is needed for the grammaticality of a sentence. This paper looks at the use of the impersonal you in interviews with Major League Baseball （MLB） players and managers. In answering questions about their personal involvement in particular game events, players and managers will at times answer in generalizations using the impersonal you. First, possible reasons for this generalization strategy are examined, including to make a case for cultural norms （in the context of baseball）, to make sense of their experiences in a broader context, or to distance themselves from the situation. Second, a corpus of MLB interviews was created to explore the extent of this usage, and to compare the usage of personal you with impersonal you.departmental bulletin pape