Thursday, February 15, 2007
pants, scissors and diapers(?)
Oh the wonderful things I learn on the Language Log. There is a technical term for words which only occur in the plural. It is "plurale tantum". It seems that the pants/trousers family of words is very productive. Other pant-like (pants-like?) garments that also have this twoness property include: slacks, breeches, bloomers, jeans, dungarees, bellbottoms, tights, shorts, Levis, 501s, underpants, skivvies, drawers, panties, boxers, briefs, etc. You get the idea. It seems that all of these garments share the same property. They have 2 leg holes and thus are candidates for being included in the list of pluralia tantum.
Other pluralia tantum objects in the world include: suspenders, scissors, shears, pliers, binoculars, tongs.
Diaper is an interesting case. It appears that we can say: "She wore a diaper." or "She wore diapers."
Even though you can't say: *She wore a pantie. or *She wore a short.
Also interesting is that the brand names for diapers, Pampers and Huggies are also pluralia tantum but they they can be singular too: Hand me the Pamper so I can change the baby.
Hmmm. What's going on here?
The Language Log says that diaper/diapers and by analogy Huggie/Huggies is plurale tantum and singular.
Other pluralia tantum objects in the world include: suspenders, scissors, shears, pliers, binoculars, tongs.
Diaper is an interesting case. It appears that we can say: "She wore a diaper." or "She wore diapers."
Even though you can't say: *She wore a pantie. or *She wore a short.
Also interesting is that the brand names for diapers, Pampers and Huggies are also pluralia tantum but they they can be singular too: Hand me the Pamper so I can change the baby.
Hmmm. What's going on here?
The Language Log says that diaper/diapers and by analogy Huggie/Huggies is plurale tantum and singular.
# posted by blue-foot Sue @ 7:43 PM 
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