Re: USAGE: Count and mass nouns

So it seems that we're about to agree. There are
different duals:
- the sort "any two items put together", like two
friends walking together in the street, or two
arguments
- the "lateralized sort", like left and right hand of
a person (a pair - every person being lateralized)
- the "yin-yang sort", like man and woman (in French:
un couple, although that vocable can also be used in
other meanings)
- (and maybe a forgot one or two on the way ?)

So what about trial (is that the word ? I mean 3 items
together). Much more difficult to find examples,
except for the Holy Trinity, isn't it ? Yet there seem
to be some languages including that concept. Is it
justified ?

--- Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...> wrote:
>
> Maybe, but mere laterality is not the point. It's
> not just two random hands - it is the rightleft
> of a person together as a unit. This is why such
> body parts often get dual numbers to begin with.
>

=====
Philippe Caquant

"Le langage est source de malentendus."
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus

Replies