attributive freshman

[Matthew Gordon]

The freshman/-men variation is clearly facilitated by the fact that vowel
reduction makes these (almost) homophonous. Still, I'm intrigued by the
discrepancy Arnold noted with regard to possible animacy effects (e.g. human
v. non-human heads)


On 11/2/06 1:21 PM, "FRITZ JUENGLING" <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US>
wrote:

> This has been a topic of conversation in our English Department for some
> time.  I am happy with freshman (and am also a German speaker).  Do you
> also want 'sophomores girls', 'juniors girls,' and 'seniors girls'?
> Fritz J
>
>>>> medievalist at W-STS.COM 11/2/2006 9:40 AM >>>
> I'm curious as to others' responses about this use:
>
> When I see "freshman" used attributively, I have the instinct to
> decline it to agree with its noun in number. Does anyone else?
>
> For example: when I see "freshman girls" I want to change it to
> "freshmen girls." My second language is German, so I'm wondering if
> this instinct is grounded in the native English syntax or is some
> interference from a foreign language where we make adjectives agree
> in number and case.
>
> ---Amy West
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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