Natalie,
Your “state” vs. “instance”
distinction sounds right on the money to me. The word is usable in either sense,
e.g. “Senator Pouncetrifle faced the latest in a string of embarrassments today
as his former finance advisor admitted changing the status of some of his
campaign funds” vs. “Senator Pouncetrifle has had to deal with a lot of embarrassment
recently.”
---- Bill Spruiell
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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