addenda/s...alumni

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:34 PM -0400 8/22/04, sagehen wrote:
>  >>Benjamin Barrett writes:
>>A question I've had for some time is why there are so many alumni
>>associations. Is there are reason why they aren't alumnus associations?
>>Or are irregular plurals normally used that way?
>>
>  Is it irregular? Relying on my memory of high school Latin sixty yrs
>ago.......
>I suppose you could have alumnorum -- an assoc. of graduates.  Or perhaps
>the *alumni* assoc. is *a* graduate's assoc. (that is one to which a grad
>is entitled: genitive sing. not nom plural).
>I guess the use of  the term *alumnus/i * is for the purpose of being
>inclusive, that is, entitling all former students whether  they achieved
>degrees or not.
>Rereading your question, it occurs to me that you may mean the irregularity
>of using a plural adjectivally......?
>A. Murie

This would be a nominal compound rather than an adjective + noun
phrase, and I think plurals are indeed standardly used in such cases,
whether regular or irregular.  In fact, in some cases the plural
possessive must be used:

Boys Club/Boys' Club
Girls Club/Girls' Club
Women's Association
Men's Association

It is an association of alumni, rather than of (an) alumnus, after
all, so I'm not sure where the original puzzle alluded to by Benjamin
Barrett resides.   I guess the Men's Association could be read as
belonging to, rather than consisting of, the men who are its members,
in which case both "Boys Club" and "Boys' Club" would be viable
alternatives, but it's odd to me that "Men Club" or "Women
Association" seem so impossible.  And on the other hand "Alumni's
Association" does too.   Arnold, this seems like one for you.

larry