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Re: USAGE: intuitions (Re: ontology of glottalized segments?)

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Thursday, August 12, 2004, 23:09
On Thu, Aug 12, 2004 at 05:41:36PM -0500, Mark P. Line wrote:
> Trebor Jung said: > > And wrote: "Emphatic, my intuitions tell me." > > > > "Intuitions"? Isn't that a mass noun? I've never heard or read it used as > > a count noun. Or was that just a typo? > > > "I had an intuition about turnips yesterday. I had another intuition about > cumquats the day before. Today I've decided that both of those intuitions > were incorrect." > > I don't find anything unusual in that kind of usage. Not that I ever have > intuitions about cumquats. (Turnips, now, are a different matter.)
Right. The word "intuition" can refer to the general ability, in which case it is a mass noun, or it can refer to a particular intuitive feeling, in which case it's pluralizable. I have also never had intuitions about "cumquat"s, but I've also never seen that word spelled that way, either. It's always been "kumquat" IME. -Marcos

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Mark P. Line <mark@...>