In praise of linguistic innovation and correct plurals

[John Dunn]

Thanks for leaping in.  In British English, where the plural is rare (there is only one), only attorney generals is possible (he was one of the worst attorney generals in history).  And Google suggests that brother-in-laws is at least possible.  It occurs to me that what helps to make these plural forms seem artificial is that the genitive ending can appear only at the end:
That's a fine mother-in-law's tongue you've got growing in that pot.
The procurator fiscal's case seemed remarkably weak.

Genitive plural forms must be extremely rare, but I suppose the same rule would apply:
My brother-in-laws' jobs prevent them from attending the wedding.

John Dunn.
________________________________________
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Francoise Rosset [frosset at WHEATONMA.EDU]
Sent: 08 October 2010 15:55
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] In praise of linguistic innovation and correct plurals


Take heart, there are some surviving fossils:

I have never heard of run-batted-ins in baseball, always the correct
RUNS-batted-in. Granted, it's a three-word expression and doesn't
exactly flow smoothly. Which may explain why the preferred locution is
ribbies, a sounding out of RBIs, where the plural S does appear,
conveniently, at the end of the acronym.

There's also Attorneys General, which was also used correctly at least
a few times in US newscasts, regarding the recent flurry of activity
by state AGs who are suing the Federal government over "Obama-care,"
 ostensibly on behalf of their states. However, references to AGs are
usually to the local one and hence singular.

Finally, I think, while we say "in-laws," we can safely expect the
survival of mothers-in-law, sons-in-law, etc. (or am I wrong here?)

It's been a really useful and informative discussion!
Lots for the students to mull over,
-FR

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