English grammar and such: On the Nature of Bookshelfs

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Lee Storm \(God Is The Healing Force\)" 
<n2fgc at ...> wrote:
>
> [Steve B]:
> | But the even more complicated matter is Bookshelf Speakers.
> | 
> | The singular is obviously 'bookshelf' but what is the plural?
> | 
> | It is not really 'bookshelf' that is plural, it is 'speakers'.
> | 
> | We are not talking about two bookshelves, we are talking about
> | two bookshelf speakers, which are referred to in short as
> | "Bookshelfs".
> | 
> | Which of course bring up the very problem at hand, in this 
> | context, is 'Bookshelfs' correct when referring to more than
> | one Bookshelf Speaker? 
> | 
> | Inquirin
> 
> [Lee]:
> You're still talking about more than one speaker, however, you're using the
> style type "bookshelf" rather than the number of speakers.  Since the style
> type is in the singular "Bookshelf," you are expressing a desire for more
> than one speaker of the same style, so, IMHO, since the style name is a
> singular, the fact that you want more than one still doesn't change it's
> name.  saying you want two bookshelfs when referring to the speakers in
> actuality seems correct to me.

Geoff:
I think the point is that, in this instance, "Bookshelf" is functioning as an 
adjective to "Shelf" or "shelves" and since adjectives are no longer inflected 
in English, "Bookshelf speakers" would be the correct form.

Other peculiarities which sometimes arise and are wrongly handled in 
English are words which are hyphenated or have the noun at the beginning.
Examples which spring immediately to mind are: aide-de-camp, aide-
memoire, master-at-arms and auto-da-fé for which the plurals are 
aides-de-camp, aides-memoire, masters-at-arms and autos-da-fé. 
Looking at the ones which spring to mind straight away, perhaps I ought 
to lie down quietly in a darkened room.
:-)

Seriously, you can probably provide further examples.

This also harks back to sonething Carol wrote on Main a day or so ago 
when she asked whether the plural of "deus ex machina" was "Dei ex 
machinae" and my answer would be 'no'; it should be "dei ex machina" 
because in the context there should only be one machine.