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Cool Breeze Posted 15 years ago
Linguistics Studies
Singular genitive as plural
"It's a $1 billion-plus undertaking that McDonald's and its franchisees hope, by 2015, will have the vast majority of America's 14,000 McDonald's looking comfortable enough to hang out in long after you've gobbled down your burger, fries — and smoothie."
(USA Today)
Is it correct English to use a singular genitive suffix ('s) as a plural marker? (I think it is because I can't imagine how an idiomatic plural could be formed.)
CB
(USA Today)
Is it correct English to use a singular genitive suffix ('s) as a plural marker? (I think it is because I can't imagine how an idiomatic plural could be formed.)
CB
Top answer
Hi I think the answer to your question is that an idiom can be formed in English when referring to a number of outlets of the same business In other words, "Macdonald's" can be short for "Macdonald's restaurants" If I said - "In my high street, there are now two Macdonald's".. It might look as though I'm using apostrophe + s as a plural form to refer to two shops (which would be wrong). But the "'s" is not a plural marker - it is signifying "two Macdonald's shops" - two shops that belong to Macdonald Tricky to explain - but I hope this may help.
- Hi I think the answer to your question is that an idiom can be formed in English when referring to a number of outlets of the same business In other words, "Macdonald's" can be short for "Macdonald's restaurants" If I said - "In my high street, there are now two Macdonald's"..
- It might look as though I'm using apostrophe + s as a plural form to refer to two shops (which would be wrong).
- But the "'s" is not a plural marker - it is signifying "two Macdonald's shops" - two shops that belong to Macdonald Tricky to explain - but I hope this may help.
- Dave
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1 Answers
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Hi
I think the answer to your question is that an idiom can be formed in English when referring to a number of outlets of the same business
In other words, "Macdonald's" can be short for "Macdonald's restaurants"
If I said - "In my high street, there are now two Macdonald's"..
It might look as though I'm using apostrophe + s as a plural form to refer to two shop
I think the answer to your question is that an idiom can be formed in English when referring to a number of outlets of the same business
In other words, "Macdonald's" can be short for "Macdonald's restaurants"
If I said - "In my high street, there are now two Macdonald's"..
It might look as though I'm using apostrophe + s as a plural form to refer to two shop
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