End of ADS-L Digest - 21 Sep 1995 to 22 Sep 1995

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There are 17 messages totalling 440 lines in this issue.



Topics of the day:



 1. Plural Proper Nouns

 2. menu (2)

 3. cunning

 4. One more judgment please (5)

 5. X-Post from LINGUIST: Lang Policy

 6. acceptability/grammaticality judgments, please (2)

 7. Mouse/Mice=House/Hice

 8. Gen Ed Linguistics (3)

 9. Could I please ask...



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Date:  Sat, 23 Sep 1995 00:06:35 -0400

From:  Virginia Clark <vpclark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOOSE.UVM.EDU>

Subject: Re: Plural Proper Nouns



    But there are usually (often?) exceptions, which we tend to forget.



At 03:11 PM 9/21/95 MST, you wrote:

>Fritz Juengling writes:

>

>> When I was in grade school, we learned the rule,

>> "drop the <y>, add <ies>. For years, when I was studying

>> German, there were two "Germanies." Then about 5 years ago,

>> when the Germanies were reuniting, I saw nothing in the papers

>> except 'Germanys.' This violated everything I had ever

>> learned, both in English and German classes.

>

>Did that <ies> rule apply to proper nouns?

>In a room full of people named either Wendy or Terry, do we have . . .

>     six Wendies and seven Terries

>   or, six Wendy's and seven Terry's

>   or, six Wendys and seven Terrys?

>

>

>Tom Uharriet

>utom[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]admn.712.nebo.edu

>

>

    Most handbooks used in first year English classes (e.g., the

_Harbrace College Handbook_) tuck away somewhere the information that the

plural of proper names (I think they mean nouns) ending in _y_ are formed by

adding just _s_. The old edition (the tenth) that I have gives as examples

"the Dudleys and the Berrys." Students don't notice this, and I keep

forgetting it.



Virginia Clark

University of Vermont

<vpclark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]moose.uvm.edu>