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 05:08:43 GMT
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Viewed:
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721 times
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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 communities often riddled with gramatical errors,
ussally it's just plain laziness.
In lugnet.general, Dave Low writes:
> 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 is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Lego pluralism
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| (...) 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 (...) (23 years ago, 17-Apr-01, to lugnet.general)
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