[Ads-l] hypercorrect pluralization of attributives

[Joel Berson]

"Shelf of book" would suggest a paucity -- or one very, very large coffee-table volume.  One would also say (in English) "the industry of movies", etc. with a plural.  I can sympathize with pluralizing attributives.

 

     From: Joe Salmons <jsalmons at WISC.EDU>
 To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
 Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 10:06 AM
 Subject: Re: [ADS-L] hypercorrect pluralization of attributives
   
Some of these (not ‘Houthis rebels, I imagine) seem like they’re on the way to being compounds or maybe are compounds. In some languages, you get plurals there, like German Bücherregal ‘books-shelf’. Any chance there’s a chance afoot in compounding strategies?


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