Wal-Marts, singular

David Donnell David.Donnell at EARTHLINK.NET
Sat Dec 29 00:30:45 UTC 2007


I reckon you're right, Wilson. Let's say it is a possessive form (is
that what you mean by the apostrophe?)...

However, I can't think of other smalltown MO store names right now
that use such a possessive form, if it's not a proper name... (other
than Walgreen's, about which I ain't rightly sure).

I'm sure someone will suggest some non-proper name store names with
that possessive feature, to convince me that "Wal-Mart's" is what
they mean, and that it's not so unique.

Thanks.

DD


At 4:35 PM -0500 12/28/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>It's not _Wal-Mart's_ that the folk from home are saying? That's the
>way that I interpret it when I hear my East-Texas kinfolk say it.
>
>-Wilson
>
>On Dec 28, 2007 3:01 PM, David Donnell <David.Donnell at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>-----------------------
>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       David Donnell <David.Donnell at EARTHLINK.NET>
>>  Subject:      Wal-Marts, singular
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  Back home in smalltown Missouri, I often hear people say, for
>>  example, "I'm going over to Wal-Marts." So the following CNN sentence
>>  baffled me for a moment:
>>
>>  http://tinyurl.com/28swh6
>>
>>  "Wal-Marts are not supposed to return opened packages to the sales floor."
>>
>>  I immediately thought it was a typo, that they obviously meant to
>>  write "Wal-Marts IS not supposed to return opened packages to the
>>  sales floor".
>>
>>  (You can take the boy outa the country...)
>>
>>  DD
>>  Missouri-native in NYC
>>
>>  ------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
>                                               -Sam'l Clemens
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
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