[Ads-l] hypercorrect pluralization of attributives

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

> On Oct 30, 2016, at 7:49 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
>> On Oct 30, 2016, at 8:34 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> 
>> CNN alludes to the influence of "the Obamas factor" on the Hillary campaign.
>> 
>> I don't care how many Obamas there are, it's still "the Obama factor."
>> 
>> Maybe somebody thinks that "Obama" by default means "Pres. Obama" and
>> ignores Michelle Obama, so a plural is required444
>> 
>> But who knows what people think?
>> 
>> JL
> 
> Interesting.  In nominal (noun-noun) compounds of the form A B, whether A can be plural often depends on the irregularity of the noun:  ...
> 

for a great many links on the plurals-in-compounds issue, which has come up again and again on this list, see:

https://arnoldzwicky.org/linguistics-notes/compounds-plurals/

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