Lego vs. Legos: Americanism? Regionalism?

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Jul 30, 2007, at 5:33 PM, Chris Waigl wrote:

> ... I don't think during my youth I ever went to a
> household with children that didn't contain at least some Lego, and
> back
> then they were gender neutral.

here, "Lego" is clearly plural -- a zero plural.  as in some other
examples you can google up:

Some Lego Are More Equal Than Others: ,,,
equityprivate.typepad.com/ep/2007/05/some_lego_are_m.html

These lego are specially designed to contain sensors, LEDs and motors.
blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=156791859

must agrea that not all Lego are square, but I find it so wrong, to
spend so much money with high tech addisions, that only fullfill one
porpous, ...
www.designcommunity.com/discussion/24240.html

.....

meanwhile, the occurrences of "this Lego is" seem to mostly have
"Lego" 'Lego construction'.

This Lego is the last of my personal collection and has been
displayed in a smoke free home. The Lego is currently assembled as
shown; the instructions are ...
cgi.ebay.com/STAR-WARS-LEGO-10143-DEATH-STAR-
II_W0QQitemZ200134811291QQihZ010QQcategoryZ19009QQcmdZViewItem

though there are some with "Lego" 'Lego set':

It is important to note this lego is second hand (hence the price!).
This means the piece(s) you recieve will be in used condition. ...
cgi.ebay.com.au/BLACK-FLAT-PLATES-4x4-9pcs-
lego_W0QQitemZ6011279697QQihZ009QQcategoryZ19003QQcmdZViewItem

these might well be (sg) count nouns.

and recally that the company wants "Lego" to be used *only* "as an
adjective" -- that is, as a bare-N modifier in N-N compounds like
"Lego brick", "Lego piece", etc.

arnold

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