Re: USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE: [CONLANG]
From: | Muke Tever <alrivera@...> |
Date: | Tuesday, May 21, 2002, 20:10 |
From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>
> Muke Tever scripsit:
>
> > But I think the zero plural can be extended to all fish?
>
> I don't think so. "Herring", yes, "trout", yes; but "I caught five
> shark today"? "The aquarium has six guppy"? I don't think so.
Probably not guppy, but I'm pretty sure I've heard "shark" as plural before.
Kind of a hard thing to search for, but in a quick googling I find someone "has
caught 35 - yes thirty-five shark in one day" at
http://www.mayo-ireland.ie/ConnTel/CT9806/CT980602/Shark.htm
(Of course they use "sharks" also a few paragraphs down, so it's hard to say.)
> Of course, there are also mass versions of fish names, referring to
> the fish as a food: "I ate shark in San Francisco", but that is
> not the same thing at all.
Right.
*Muke!
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