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<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2>D<SPAN class=984185713-21082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>avid,</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=984185713-21082005></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=984185713-21082005></SPAN></FONT></FONT><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT
size=2><SPAN class=984185713-21082005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>I
froke out when I read your contribution.</FONT> </SPAN><BR><BR><SPAN
class=984185713-21082005><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>Will you
supervise my dissertation on the irregular plural building
of:</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN
class=984185713-21082005></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=984185713-21082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>Pock > pocks >
pox</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=984185713-21082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>Rock >
rocks</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=984185713-21082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>Box >
boxes</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=984185713-21082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>Ox
></FONT> <FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff
size=3>oxen</FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=984185713-21082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3></FONT></SPAN></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Tahoma><FONT size=2><SPAN class=984185713-21082005><FONT
face=Arial color=#0000ff size=3>Fritz</FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></FONT><TT>Another interesting bunch from the
singular/plural standpoint is <BR>diseases. I understand that "pox" was
originally? / at one time? a <BR>plural, essentially "pocks". Is/are "measles"
a plural or not? Probably <BR>not for me. I would normally say "measles is
dangerous" rather than <BR>"measles are dangerous". I would only use a
singular "measle" as a joke. <BR>Same with "mumps", only more so. (???"He's
got a mump on the right side <BR>of his face.") But "hives" is a plural. Yet I
could certainly say "hives <BR>is an uncomfortable disease", or (less easily)
"hives is uncomfortable", <BR>or "hives is a symptom of an allergic reaction",
though I could equally <BR>well, or maybe better, use "are" in those
sentences. You can talk about <BR>a singular "hive", though you don't hear it
often (in that sense, of <BR>course. Singular bee hives are all over the
place). "Shin splints" is <BR>also pretty strongly plural even though I don't
think I've ever (till <BR>this sentence :-) ) talked about a single shin
splint; "cramps" is <BR>almost completely plural; "shingles" much less so, and
so on.<BR><BR>This is of course similar to the "potatoes" kind of plurals,
where you <BR>can say "potatoes is/are one of my favorite foods". And that of
course <BR>to other "grouping" cases like "ham and eggs is/???are one of my
<BR>favorite foods."<BR><BR>Anybody remember the Far Side cartoon where a
"sketchy" (= <BR>suspicious)-looking guy in a trench coat and dark glasses
huddles over a <BR>table of jars of illicit substances: the creeps, the
willies, the <BR>shakes, the heebie-jeebies, the fantods, and so forth.
There's <BR>(there're) another interesting bunch of plurals, again closely
related <BR>to the diseases.<BR><BR>Rudy writes (below) that for "sales" "the
semantics don't work <BR>compositionally". I might have said "doesn't".
Another singular/plural <BR>mess: the sciences. Physics is a singular,
rhetorics would have to be <BR>plural, but maybe there's only one of them any
more (i.e. for most <BR>speakers there is, or at least may be, rhetoric but
not rhetorics), is <BR>mathematics or are they (or maths) a subject in school,
and so forth. <BR><BR>Anybody out there need some good dissertation
topics?<BR><BR>--David Tuggy<BR><BR><BR><BR>Rudolph C Troike
wrote:<BR><BR>><BR>> An interesting English example came to my attention
while I was driving<BR>> around town recently. "Sales" can be simply the
plural of "sale", as in<BR>> "I made two sales (of houses, cars, etc.)
today", but I noticed it on<BR>> a sign saying "Tucson Tire Sales", where
the plural form indicates a<BR>> place where something is sold. Also, more
abstractly, it can be used<BR>> as a field of work, as in "John is in
accounting, Jim is in sales." It<BR>> would seem difficult to treat these
usages as just the simple plural<BR>> of "sale", since the semantics don't
work compositionally.<BR>><BR>> Rudy
Troike<BR>><BR>><BR>><BR>>
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