[OT] grammar v. grammars. was:Re: rsync

[Lisi <lisi.reisz@gmail.com>]

On Sunday 04 March 2012 13:19:40 Randy Kramer wrote:
> On Sunday 04 March 2012 06:53:37 am Chris Bannister wrote:
> > > Thank you
> > > (I read "The Grammar of English Grammars" by Goold Brown. finished 35
> > > of 11294 in one month. Hope can finish one day).
> >
> > Just be aware, the Americans have their own version of English.
>
> I would have said just the opposite--the English have their own version of
> English.  ;-)  Oh, but I guess they did get there first. ;-)
>
> And then I see the .nz on your address, I know the Australians have their
> own version of English, I'll bet the New Zealanders do, also.
>
> > "The Grammar of English Grammars" is the wrong book to be reading,
> > i.e., there is no such word as "Grammars"
>
> Then what is the plural of grammar?  There certainly seems to be a need /
> use for the plural--I've used "grammars" since around 1968 (and maybe
> earlier) when we talked about grammars for computer languages in class (as
> in "context free grammars").
>
> I tried looking at Merriam Webster, and didn't see "grammars" (nor a
> plural) specifically listed--I don't know if that means there is no plural
> or that, since nothing different is specified, the standard addition of "s"
> does the job?  (Note, I can see only the abridged version of the Merriam
> Webster dictionary.)
>
> Not that I consider Wikipedia (the encyclopedia) an authority on language
> usage, but they use "grammars" in their article on grammar.
>
> Wiktionary lists grammars: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/grammars

And Wikipedia and Wiktionary are predominantly American.  You only have to 
look at the name "Wikipedia"!  (Which makes me cringe slightly every time I 
have to type it!)

There is, as Chris says, no plural in English English of grammar.  It is a 
collective abstract noun, and has no plural.

In American, it would appear that it has a plural!

One has to be careful when saying that English English came before American.  
One has to be careful layering language.  The old form of the modern French 
word veau (calf, veal) was veal.  Which still exists in that form in English, 
although it has moved on in French.  So English, the "newer" (to French) 
language has the older form of that word.

The English English that is the forerunner of American English, indeed came 
before it, but that English is also the forerunner of modern English English. 
And there are many instances of forms which endure in American being older 
than the term now used in England.  The most obvious example is Fall, which 
we now call Autumn, but used to be called Fall.  That, along with other terms 
which had fallen into desuetude this side of the pond, has started to migrate 
back.

Lisi