{"id":51193,"date":"2021-06-13T13:10:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-13T18:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=51193"},"modified":"2021-06-14T07:13:38","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T12:13:38","slug":"nouns-noun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=51193","title":{"rendered":"NOUN(s) NOUN"},"content":{"rendered":"

The discussion of Boxer(')(s)(') Trail<\/em><\/a>\u00a0 (\"Signs and wonders<\/a>\", 6\/12\/2021 ) brought up the question of plural forms in English nouns in structures like mouse trap<\/em>, activities center<\/em>, and iron bar<\/em>, which has been much discussed in the linguistic and psycholinguistic literature — and also here on Language Log.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Without further commentary, here are some of the highlights:<\/p>\n

\"Postcard from Vegas, 3: Regularly-inflected plurals exclusion? I don't think so<\/a>\", 12\/1\/2003
\n\"Activities Centers in Paradise and Santa Cruz<\/a>\", 12\/1\/2003
\n\"The rigors of fieldwork trips<\/a>\", 12\/1\/2003
\n\"English grammar quiz<\/a>\", 9\/20\/2011
\n\"Complaint(s) Department<\/a>\", 12\/6\/2011<\/p>\n

And for more than you probably want to read about the topic, see Mark Liberman and Richard Sproat, \"The stress and structure of complex nominals in English<\/a>\", 1992.<\/p>\n

Update — according to the USGS:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. BOARD ON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES\u00a0(BGN)<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. I have heard that the use of the apostrophe \"s\", such as Pike's Peak to show possession is not allowed in geographic names, so why are there many such entries in the GNIS database?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since its inception in 1890, the BGN has discouraged the use of the possessive form\u2014the genitive apostrophe and the \u201cs\u201d. The possessive form using an \u201cs\u201d is allowed, but the apostrophe is almost always removed. The BGN's archives contain no indication of the reason for this policy.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, there are many names in the GNIS database that do carry the genitive apostrophe, because the BGN chooses not to apply its policies to some types of features. Although the legal authority of the BGN\u00a0includes all named entities except Federal Buildings, certain categories\u2014broadly determined to be \u201cadministrative\u201d\u2014are best left to the organization that administers them. Examples include schools, churches, cemeteries, hospitals, airports, shopping centers, etc. The BGN promulgates the names, but leaves issues such as the use of the genitive or possessive apostrophe to the data owners.<\/em><\/p>\n

Myths attempting to explain the policy include the idea that the apostrophe looks too much like a rock in water when printed on a map, and is therefore a hazard, or that in the days of \u201cstick\u2013up type\u201d for maps, the apostrophe would become lost and create confusion. The probable explanation is that the BGN does not want to show possession for natural features because, \u201cownership of a feature is not in and of itself a reason to name a feature or change its name.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Since 1890, only five BGN decisions have allowed the genitive apostrophe for natural features. These are: Martha's Vineyard (1933) after an extensive local campaign; Ike's Point in New Jersey (1944) because \u201cit would be unrecognizable otherwise\u201d; John E's Pond in Rhode Island (1963) because otherwise it would be confused as John S Pond (note the lack of the use of a period, which is also discouraged); and Carlos Elmer's Joshua View (1995 at the specific request of the Arizona State Board on Geographic and Historic Names because, \u201cotherwise three apparently given names in succession would dilute the meaning,\u201d that is, Joshua refers to a stand of trees. Clark\u2019s Mountain in Oregon (2002) was approved at the request of the Oregon Board to correspond with the personal references of Lewis and Clark.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The discussion of Boxer(')(s)(') Trail\u00a0 (\"Signs and wonders\", 6\/12\/2021 ) brought up the question of plural forms in English nouns in structures like mouse trap, activities center, and iron bar, which has been much discussed in the linguistic and psycholinguistic literature — and also here on Language Log.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-morphology","category-syntax"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51193"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51198,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51193\/revisions\/51198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}