attributive freshman

[Joanne M. Despres]

I don't seem to share your instict, Amy, for whatever it's worth.  My
instinct would be to write "freshman women" with "freshman"
having a sort of undeclinable status in my mind.  Similarly, I would
write (or say) "Latino woman" rather than "Latina woman" -- the
latter would strike me as redundant.

Joanne

On 2 Nov 2006, at 12:40, Amy West wrote:

> 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org