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Date: | Thu, 20 Sep 2007 15:51:41 -0400 |
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Clearly both, as your examples demonstrate. Sometimes we use it as a
mass noun, sometimes as a count noun.
Dick Veit
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Richard Veit
Department of English
University of North Carolina Wilmington
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From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Natalie Gerber
Sent: Thursday, September 20, 2007 3:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: question on countable and uncountable nouns
Hello:
I would be grateful for your thoughts as to whether or not embarrassment
is a countable or uncountable noun or both. In the phrase "to protect
the State Department from political embarrassment" it seems to me to be
an uncountable noun; yet in the phrase "an embarrassment of riches,"
embarrassment follows the property of a countable noun, i.e., it can be
modified by the indefinite article.
Can one say I faced several embarrassments as opposed to I faced several
kinds of embarrassment? i.e., embarrassment as a count noun is an
instance of embarrassment whereas embarrassment as a noncount noun is
the state of being embarrassed? And is there a reliable resource for
checking the status of common nouns?
Thanks for your thoughts-
Natalie Gerber
SUNY Fredonia
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