More semantic drift

[Charles Doyle]

Yes, paralleling "metaphor" as a mass noun in the same sentence . . . .

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----

>Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 10:12:46 -0700
>From: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
>Subject: Re: More semantic drift
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>> ...  "The comic playwrights of ancient Greece...are well-known for taking advantage of metaphor and puns, or play-on-words."
>
>i don't think this is an example of final rather than head pluralization, or of zero pluralization, but rather of taking the "play" of "play on words" to be a mass noun (as in "word-play") rather than a count noun.  mass uses of "play on words" aren't hard to find:
.  .  .  .
>
>arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)

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