Word: plurality
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...than loosely bound monogamy. "I feel sorry for people who don't live in polygamy," says one wife. "In our world, instead of a man getting involved in wife swapping and chasing other women, he brings them into the family." Women, on the other hand, often instigate the plural marriage. "It's not unusual for the girl to ask the man to marry her," notes another such wife. "Women should take the initiative, especially if the man is married...
...Montana a year ago. What he and David Brinkley provided was a happy accident, a memorable blend of sonorous seriousness and acid wit. In their early ratings and in their personal chemistry, they were a hard act to follow. So hard, in fact, that last week NBC abandoned the plural approach to the evening news. For the first time in 15 years, it will go with a single anchor man. In mid-August, veteran Newsman John Chancellor gets...
...singular fashion. "The media is to blame for all the trouble," "The media carries only bad news," or (on rare occasions) "The media is the first defense line of American liberties." Webster's, that horror of permissiveness, allows the usage. It is, of course, illiterate: "media" is the plural of "medium"; hence the media are. The point may seem merely pedantic. But how people speak suggests a great deal about how they think and feel; language shapes philosophy, culture and destiny...
...mental habit of reducing plural words to the singular has been evident before. A case in point is "data," beloved of all social scientists. Data no longer are; they is. "The data is incomplete" or "the data is compelling" turns the concept into a kind of glob-a paste or putty that can be applied to any rickety argument. The origin, quality and meaning of the individual figures are easily forgotten; one data is as good as another data...
...simply boils down to the fact that this time we have to get our anticipated points and pick up some where the dope sheets indicate pessimism." said head track coach Bill McCurdy of this afternoon's meet at 12:30 p.m. against Army. "Somebody (make that plural) for Harvard has to do something that doesn't figure...