chad is like fish...

[Lynne Murphy]

> We've seen countable chad ('pregnant chads'), mass chad ('lots of
> chad'), and now zero-morpheme plural chad, as indicated by the verb
> agreement in the last sentence below.
>
>
> More than 2 million ballots uncounted nationwide
>
> By David Ho
>
> Nov. 28, 2000 | WASHINGTON (AP)
>
> [paragraphs deleted]
> Gore supporters say the problem in Florida largely can be traced to
> paper punch-card ballots, which have added "chad," dimpled,
> swinging, pregnant and otherwise, to the national lexicon. Chad are
> the tiny pieces of paper that pop out of a ballot when a voter
> chooses a candidate.
>
>
> Dr M Lynne Murphy
> Lecturer in Linguistics
> School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences
> University of Sussex
> Brighton BN1 9QH
> UK
>
> phone +44-(0)1273-678844
> fax   +44-(0)1273-671320