[Ads-l] hypercorrect pluralization of attributives

[Joe Salmons]

Some of these (not ‘Houthis rebels, I imagine) seem like they’re on the way to being compounds or maybe are compounds. In some languages, you get plurals there, like German Bücherregal ‘books-shelf’. Any chance there’s a chance afoot in compounding strategies?



> On Mar 29, 2015, at 6:24 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: hypercorrect pluralization of attributives
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Why (in the subject line) hyper- and not (if you'll pardon the =
> expression) in-?  Or, to be more polite, hypocorrect? Is there a =
> prestige form the innovators below are aiming to reach or overreach?
> 
> LH
> 
>> On Mar 29, 2015, at 8:03 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> =
> wrote:
>> =20
>> CNN is talking about "the Houthis rebels."
>> =20
>> I've recently heard "the movies industry."
>> =20
>> Plus (I hope you're sitting down) "the aircrafts industry."
>> =20
>> =20
>> JL
>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 1:11 PM, Laurence Horn =
> <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>> =20
>>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>>> -----------------------
>>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
>>> Subject:      Re: hypercorrect pluralization of attributives
>>> =20
>>> =
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> -----
>>> =20
>>> At 9:29 AM -0700 3/30/09, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>>> On Mar 30, 2009, at 7:41 AM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>>>>> =20
>>>> =20
>>>>> At 3/30/2009 09:40 AM, Arnold Zwicky wrote:
>>>>> =20
>>>>>> not ridiculous or incorrect, much less hypercorrect.  *the name of
>>>>>> the
>>>>>> dice game* is "craps".  you "shoot craps".  "crap game" would be
>>>>>> absurd, like "jack game", "measle infection", etc.
>>>>>> =20
>>>>>> see the OED entry for "craps".  of obscure origin (not obviously
>>>>>> related to "crap" 'feces'),
>>>>> =20
>>>>> But, as I learned, the OED also has "crap" and "crap game".
>>>> =20
>>>> ack.  i somehow missed that.
>>>> =20
>>>> i would interpret "crap game" as a re-shaping of "craps game",
>>>> accommodating the expression to the usual pattern for N-N compounds.
>>>> =20
>>>> i'm starting to find more such re-shapings.  i get small numbers of
>>>> hits for {"measle infection"} and {"mump infection"}, for instance.
>>>> =20
>>>> meanwhile, Joel Berson has pointed out to me that the OED has an =
> entry
>>>> for "eave", back-formed from "eaves", with citations from 1789.  the =
> -
>>>> s of "eaves" was not originally a mark of the plural, but in modern
>>>> english the word is standardly plural in its syntax, and that led to
>>>> the creation of a singular "eave".
>>> =20
>>> A case of "eaves" dropping, then.  And a nice addition to the
>>> "kudo(s)", "pea(s(e))" stock.
>>> =20
>>> LH
>>> =20
>>>> though many sources (like CGEL)
>>>> treat "eaves" as invariably plural, back-formed "eave" turns out to =
> be
>>>> pretty frequent these days; a google search on {"to the eave"} =
> turned
>>>> up plenty of examples -- many of them with "eave" as the first =
> element
>>>> in a N-N compound (like "eave strut"), but many of them not.
>>>> =20
>>>> arnold
>>>> =20
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>> =20
>> =20
>> =20
>> --=20
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