Language desk
< October 13	<< Sep \| October \| Nov >>	October 15 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

October 14

What exactly does the annotation "plural but singular or plural in construction" mean in a dictionary definition?

What exactly does the annotation "plural but singular or plural in construction" mean in a dictionary definition? --134.242.92.2 (talk) 16:58, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It would be much easier to give you a clear explanation if you gave us the (or a) word whose dictionary definition includes this annotation. [The poster formerly known as 8781.230.195} 185.74.232.130 (talk) 17:02, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Statistics. --134.242.92.2 (talk) 17:30, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

See explanation here. Fut.Perf. ☼ 17:08, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. I didn't realize "construction" is about construing, not constructing. --134.242.92.2 (talk) 17:30, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

It is about construing, but it's also about constructing, as in the construction of sentences. It does muddy the issue that both terms come from the same Latin root [1]. "Robotics" is a similar example. It is plural in form, but acts as a singular in constructions. E.g. "The field of robotics is growing rapidly." SemanticMantis (talk) 18:22, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I'd have construed that as a singular verb anyway ("field ... is growing"), but I agree that "Robotics is a rapidly growing field." StevenJ81 (talk) 18:43, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

(Oops, thanks for correcting my flawed example :) SemanticMantis (talk) 21:01, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

In the case of statistics, there are two possible meanings: 1) the discipline or field of statistics, which typically takes a singular verb, 2) more than one statistic, or number describing collected data. If you are referring to more than one such number, then you need a plural verb. Here are examples: 1) "Statistics is my favorite course." "Statistics relies heavily on probability." BUT 2) "These statistics show that the policy is a failure." "The statistics support my argument." Marco polo (talk) 18:55, 14 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Not only words ending with "cs" (like mathematics, robotics etc.), but also words - ending with "ies" - and rhyming with "countries", like series, species, and the like. HOOTmag (talk) 07:03, 15 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

If you list series, you may as well list sheep. (Some Latin words have –es in nominative singular and nominative/accusative plural.) —Tamfang (talk) 21:47, 17 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

I've only listed words which rhyme with regular plural-words and which end with letters with which plural-words usually end. Note that Marco Polo indicated the letters "cs" (as in robotics), so I added the letters "ies" (as in series, species). However, "sheep" does not rhyme with any other plural-word, and does not end with any letters with which plural-words usually end. HOOTmag (talk) 11:25, 18 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The dictionaries I usually use don't say "plural but" like that. The OED, for example, says "with singular concord" or "with plural concord"; the RHU says "construed as singular" or "construed as plural". I think this approach is clearer. The only reason to say "plural but" is to convey the idea that it's etymologically a plural, and I don't think it's a clear way to say that. --174.88.134.156 (talk) 09:37, 15 October 2015 (UTC)[reply]