Find the time to read 'Words and Rules' by Steven Pinker if you like
this kind of thing
I agreed that for all it may sound wierd, "naming contexts" is
probably right. Pinker's theory, persuasively made, is that there are
no new irregular plurals and that those words which pluralise
irregularly do so for historical reasons. The example he gives is that
the plural of 'leaf' is 'leaves', but Toronto's hockey team is not the
'maple leaves' but the 'maple leafs' - because you are not talking
about actual leaves on a maple tree but creating a new term which you
then pluralise regularly by adding an s
So it would follow that 'naming context' is not two separate words
which should be considered separately, but a new single word which
gets an s to pluralise it.
Sad grammer nerds of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but
your irregular plurals!
(as an aside, what is the plural of 'referendum' - DONT start a thread
for this
