The plural of "moose" is ...

[Laurence Horn]

At 9:35 PM -0400 8/30/10, Neal Whitman wrote:
>On 31 Aug 2010, at 01:48, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>>
>>  Well, I'd think this is simply the difference of apprehending the
>>food in question as something that contains a certain amount of a
>>substance -- which might come from a part of a single animal or
>>parts of several interchangeable animals -- versus multiple
>>complete units. You get the same with fruit and vegetables: melon
>>versus cherries; lettuce and pumpkin versus peas and carrots. Some
>>function both ways ("apple", for example).
>On the blog:
>"But when it comes to fruits and vegetables, even after a pass
>through the universal grinder (or a real-world food processor), not
>all of the count nouns turn into mass nouns. Some, like pears,
>remain count nouns."

"You've got some pear on your shirt"?  Doesn't seem that bad to me.
Or "I need to rinse all that pear off (of) the mixer blades".  (Not
to mention the baby food jars of pear.)

Universal grinder strikes again!

LH

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