A pliers, a scissors, a forceps. A lot of these get used with "pair of" or some other partitive expression, so we have "a pair of pants" but not usually "a pants." We tend to think of the -s on nouns as solely marking plural, but can also mark a collective with singular agreement, as in "games," "billiards," or "measles." It can also simply lose its plural function as in the first three examples above. I did a paper a couple of years ago in the journal Word on another, previously unnoted use of -s, to form nominalizations, as in "dependence," "news," "marksman" and many others. (Don't let the spelling of "-nce" words mislead; they end in an -s.) Unfortunately, school grammars tend to oversimplify what the -s suffix can do to a noun.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Adams
Sent: 2008-08-26 23:40
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: noun verbs
Did anyone notice how NBC kept talk about Phelps's unprecedented
winning of eight gold medals in a single Olympic games? A games? Can
you say that?
Peter Adams
On Aug 26, 2008, at 10:51 PM, STAHLKE, HERBERT F wrote:
> There's a slightly too broad maxim in English grammar that "any noun
> can be verbed." In many cases--claim, hope, report, etc.--they've
> been used long enough to become established in formal standard
> usage. I know editors and teachers who will still reject "impact"
> as a verb, although it's widely used and has a history going back to
> 1601. "Medal" first appears as a verb, in the OED entry, in 1822,
> but all uses until 1966 are passive. The first active use is about
> divers medaling in several of their events, reported in the Van Nuys
> Valley News. The OED does not have an entry for "podium" as a verb,
> so that one has to be more recent. Whether a particular denominal
> verb should be used is very much a matter of taste.
>
> Herb
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]
> ] On Behalf Of diane skinner
> Sent: 2008-08-26 20:43
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: noun verbs
>
> To All (or anyone),
>
> Assuming that nouns and verbs are labeled as form classes (they accept
> derivational and/or inflectional morphemes) and considering
> that restrictions on word selection and its position allow the hearer
> ( and/or reader) to understand what the speaker (and/or writer) is
> trying to communicate, yet recognizing that these form classes often
> overlap in function (a verb can act like a noun: I study English. / I
> study English in my study.), how is it that a few commentators during
> the NBC broadcast of the Olympics --presumably speaking Standard
> American English--said, "He should medal" and "He should, at least,
> podium"?
>
> I'm not a purist, but I'm still trying to get used to "I'll email you,
> and you text me back."
>
> Diane Skinner
>
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