reporter's license

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 2:50 PM, Randy Alexander
<strangeguitars at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 12:51 PM, Victor <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > It's a twofer--there's also that pesky "s". I suspected that the
> > reporter was from Hawaii and used the local dialect. So I almost gave it
> > a pass, except for the plural.
>
> I don't see the "s" as pesky, but rather just a count use for "servings of
> shave ice".  Unless there's something I'm missing.

Indeed. Cf. countable "Italian ice(s)".


--Ben Zimmer

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