--- Tristan <kesuari@...> wrote:
> I couldn't plug my mouse on this computer onto my
> other computer; it lacks the necessary (PS/2) port.
Buy a PS/2 to serial port converter. They're cheap. I
think I have one around if you're desparate. ;)
> Though I'd admit someone might say 'Stop unplugging
> the mice!' just as
> willingly as 'Stop unplugging all the mouses!'. But
> 'Leave the mice
> plugged in' and not 'Leave the mouses plugged in'.
Still sounds totally unnatural, "mouses".
> >Here, "sweet-tooths" is a compound (meaning "likes
> >sweet foods"), whereas "sweet teeth" are, well,
> "teeth
> >that taste sugary".
> >
> 'Sweet-tooths' doesn't make proper sense.
If more than one classical music lover has one, it
makes perfect sense. One CML = one sweet-tooth; many
CMLs = many sweet-tooths.
> One has a (singular) sweet
> tooth, but 'sweet tooths' seems to imply all of
> their teeth are sweet
> teeth. 'Sweet tooth' is unpluralisable.
Sweet teeth are a different problem entirely!
> >>3a) Your mother and I dig the Doors.
> >>3b) ?Back in the Sixties, your mother and I
> dug
> >>the Doors.
> >>
> Took me some time to work out what (3b) here meant.
"Dig" in that sense means to like intensely. It's a
tad archaic, though.
> Nought (and is that not how the digit is spelt?) is
> a perfectly
> ligitimate starting place. Ask any computer ;)
I ain't a computer, nor is anyone else of my
acquaintance. Computers can start on nought if they
like (but they can only count to 1 anyway); people
start on one. I'm not generally a prescriptivist, but
this is one of those things that gets a sigh of
exasperation from me.
> Tristan.
Padraic.
=====
il dunar-li c' argeont ayn politig;
celist il pozponer le mbutheor ayn backun gras.
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