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Mcaleck Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Recognition vs recognitions

I know. All the dictionaries say recognition is uncountable.

BUT:

http://www.usa.gov/About/Awards.shtml

http://www.sharp.com/choose-sharp/awards-recognitions.cfm

http://www.capella.edu/about_capella/awards.aspx

along with 5 440 000 other google hits from native english websites

so what gives?
  

Top answer

Any supposedly uncountable noun in English with no plural can be forced into being a plural. Recognition is nominally uncountable, but in the examples you give, it is used as a synonym for "prize", which forces it into being a plural noun. The noun, deer, is not supposed to have a plural, but you can force it to being a plural noun.

— Anonymous

  • Any supposedly uncountable noun in English with no plural can be forced into being a plural.
  • Recognition is nominally uncountable, but in the examples you give, it is used as a synonym for "prize", which forces it into being a plural noun.
  • The noun, deer, is not supposed to have a plural, but you can force it to being a plural noun.
  • For example: The zoo has deers from all over the world.
  • Cattle should not have a plural, but you can force it into a plural: He imported dozens of different cattles from all over the world.
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4 Answers
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Any supposedly uncountable noun in English with no plural can be forced into being a plural.

Recognition is nominally uncountable, but in the examples you give, it is used as a synonym for "prize", which forces it into being a plural noun.

The noun, deer, is not supposed to have a plural, but you can force it to being a plural noun. For example: The zoo has deers from all over
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Hi,

The word can be used as both count and non-count. In your 3 links, 'recognitions' has a meaning close to 'awards' or 'testimonials'.

But by far the most common usage is non-count.

Clive
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Well, that would make sense, except that none of the big respected dictionary publishers (Oxford, Merriam-Webster, Longman, etc.) indicate recognition as being both count and non-count depending on meaning.

Plus, a highly esteemed journalist friend of mine says "recognitions" sounds "terrible" and none-native
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Yes as was said before, uncountable nouns can be FORCED into being countable. I think this very well indicates, that it is not natural to them, and therefore will not necessarily sound very natural.

If dictionaries paid any consideration to this, they would have to take in every grammatical possibility of every single word. They would be completely bloated and users would only get confuse
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