Subject:
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Re: Lego pluralism
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Tue, 17 Apr 2001 01:06:34 GMT
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Viewed:
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706 times
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In lugnet.general, Eric Sophie writes:
> This is very good, and it embodies all that others have said - here and
> there, all in one, the word Lego in and of itself is and can be used as a
> plural in conjuction with other parts of speech, just don't tag an "S" at
> the end. Right?
Almost -- by my understanding Lego is a substance like air or water that you
don't normally count. So it doesn't even _have_ a regular plural form. The
excellent explanation I referenced uses "oxygen" as an example.* You don't
normally count the molecules -- it's just oxygen. In chemistry though you'll
often refer to "oxygen molecules", particularly when you consider their
individual properties. So while you might say "One fish is swimming, three
fish are frying, most fish are aquatic" or "This LEGO brick is green, these
LEGO bricks are green, most LEGO is plastic" you'd never say "This [single
piece of] LEGO is green, these LEGO are green, most LEGO are plastic".
Anyway, I hope this helps. Does anyone disagree with my analysis? And does
anyone else find it interesting that it's Americans who seem to overlook the
naturally collective nature of LEGO?
--DaveL
*http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/nouns.html#ncntnoun
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Lego pluralism
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| Well said, most Americans that enjoy speaking properly will already do this in practice, we, as Americans often speak very casually as a matter of social expression. Also, a growing number of Americans speak a broken sub tounge rooted in their (...) (23 years ago, 17-Apr-01, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: Lego pluralism
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| (...) I agree this is how the word LEGO *should* be used, but, as I witnessed on the weekend, most non-AFOLs also seem to use it incorrectly. As in "Pass me that flat blue LEGO", "how come you're hogging all the orange LEGOs?", etc, etc. So its not (...) (23 years ago, 17-Apr-01, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Lego pluralism
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| This is very good, and it embodies all that others have said - here and there, all in one, the word Lego in and of itself is and can be used as a plural in conjuction with other parts of speech, just don't tag an "S" at the end. Right? (...) (23 years ago, 12-Apr-01, to lugnet.general)
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