Wal-Marts, singular

[Dennis Preston]

DD,

You are right in being sure.

It's very common here in Michigan. It's more common when the store
name is a personal name (Meiers, which is just Meier, Krogers, which
is just Kroger, Penneys, which is just JC Penney) but extends to ones
that are not (even Targets and K-Marts). Wal-Mart is (luckily) newer
here in MI, so it was not covered in this study, which was done more
that ten years ago (as a class paper and sadly not published). Hard
to say if it is a possessive or by analogy with such things as Sears
(which is Sears, not Sear's). Its use, by the way, is sensitive to
sex and shopping frequency at an establishment.

dInIs

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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       David Donnell <David.Donnell at EARTHLINK.NET>
>Subject:      Re: Wal-Marts, singular
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>
>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:
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>>>   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
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>--
>>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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--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Morrill Hall 15-C
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48864 USA

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