Comments on: Explaining the Abstract

By: bingobangoboy

bingobangoboy — Sun, 18 May 2008 18:10:28 +0000

Deas – thanks for the welcome, although actually I don’t comment much. Well, I guess the idea of zero being grammatically plural is just something I figured out after being through a couple of rounds of the same kind of conversation you describe. Although a quick Wikipedia search on “plural” seems to agree:
“Languages having only a singular and plural form may still differ in their treatment of zero. For example, in English, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, the plural form is used for zero or more than one, and the singular for one thing only. By contrast, in French, the singular form is used for zero.”
Once you get the idea that “single” only means exactly one, and “plural” means anything else, it suddenly doesn’t seem so strange any more. Yeah, it’s a little weird to think of zero as plural since we’ve probably all been told that plural means “more than one,” but isn’t it even more weird to think of it as single?
As for minus/negative with temperature, I use “minus” when talking about weather, and “negative” in other contexts.

By: Deas

Deas — Fri, 16 May 2008 06:13:12 +0000

Nicole – I love language glitches too. (I recently marveled at the fact that France is responsible for American wacked-out pronunciation of “Iraq.” When we say something like “eye + rack” we’re using the English pronunciation of both vowel sounds; when we say it more like “ee + rock” we’re using the French pronunciation of both vowels. France caused Americans to deal with schizo pronunciation via the Norman conquest of England. Awesome. I mean, that theory’s as good as any of the other billions out there.) And they sing 「ようこそ！どうぞ！」 in the song ひとりぼっちの晩餐会.

Ken – I guess I do? I dunno. I say both, I suppose. But I think I usually say negative, because I associate minus with mathematic calculations?

By: Ken

Ken — Fri, 16 May 2008 01:52:41 +0000

Interesting post, which made me think! I probably couldn’t have come up with a good answer right away.

You really say “negative 1 degree”? Isn’t it “minus 1 degree”?

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:42:17 +0000

and yes i know i made errors in my post. no need to point them out to me. Nicole's last blog post..The Cambodian Cow On My Luggage

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:41:27 +0000

I hate (and love) those questions that don’t have real concrete answers. I wish I knew exactly WHY English morphed the way it did.

I’m itching to say it has something to do with how it changed from Latin etc, which could very well be true, but it could just have easily have been a mistakes ages ago that got carried on for years on end.

Anyway – if you do ever find a solid answer, by all means let me know. Have fun at Beauty and the Beast!! Are they going to screech “IRASHAIMASE” “IRASHAIMASE” instead of “be our guest, be our guest?”

Nicole’s last blog post..The Cambodian Cow On My Luggage

By: Deas

Deas — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:09:08 +0000

It’s simple – if it’s a square, it is both a square AND a rectangle. If it’s a rectangle, and it happens to have 4 equal sides then it is also a square.

By: claytonian

claytonian — Thu, 15 May 2008 07:21:15 +0000

But I really want to know how to tell a square rectangle from a non-square one. I might be challenged by the mathletes! The shove compasses under people's fingernails if they're not satisfied. claytonian's last blog post..Just like that, Japanese

By: Deas

Deas — Wed, 14 May 2008 02:12:59 +0000

Clay – the short answer is YES. Ha ha ha. According to the definitions, YES we can. It’s like battle of the nitpickers here. Ha ha.

Bingobangoboy – welcome to the blog. And sweet name. Where’d you dig up this interesting info on zero and plurality vs. singularity? Thanks for the comment!

Mom – Awww. Don’t let the little kids drive you bonkers. Celsius. Hey! What do you know? It likes that spelling. (Aaah. I looked it up – Celcius is the French spelling. Celsius is the English spelling. But both are valid.) I’ll use the English spelling from now on though, just to avoid the stupid little red line. Ha ha.

By: Mom

Mom — Tue, 13 May 2008 21:25:50 +0000

“there is nothing more gratifying than watching someone “get something” for the first time. The epiphany is what I live for in this job.)” BINGO!
Yes, my wonderful son, you have figured it out. And that’s why I’m still teaching little kids even though some days they drive me bonkers.
Hey, I think it’s spelled Celsius, but equivalency is in my dictionary as well.
I’m jealous that you get to see Beauty and the Beast!
Love,
Mom

By: bingobangoboy

bingobangoboy — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:57:34 +0000

Zero *is* plural. In English, anyway. Plural doesn’t really mean “more than one” It means “other than one”; ie anything other than singular is plural — not only 0 degrees, but also 1.00001 degrees and 0.99999 degrees. It’s a uniform usage:
How many cats are there?
there are 2 cats
there is 1 cat
there are (no/zero) cats.