Re: evening (without preposition) / to start to doing

Cool Breeze — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:52:23 GMT

CalifJim wrote:
since laughter is an uncountable noun, unlike evening.
Unlike evening? Wow! In that sentence I understand evening as uncountable! (evening-ness?) Aren't all singular nouns in English uncountable when used without articles?

I didn't make my point clearly enough. I said evening is countable, I didn't say it is countable in Steinbeck's sentence. Evening is listed as countable in dictionaries, unlike laughter. Therefore it is possible to say: I spent two evenings with her, but we can't normally say: I heard two laughters from the street. Steinbeck uses evening as uncountable in his sentence. I find that a little odd and it makes me ask: why? I am just trying to figure out an answer for myself, I'm not trying to convince all members of these forums that I have the ultimate truth on the matter.

I mentioned representative in a previous post. If Portugal sends only one representative to a beauty contest, we normally say:

The representative of Portugal won the beauty contest.

If I treat representative as uncountable, I get:

Representative of Portugal won the beauty contest.

I find that sentence a little odd, if not downright incorrect. Similarly, since a hot day has only one evening - it is possible to say "one evening" because "evening" is countable - I would prefer to say:

The evening of a hot day...

I don't object to Steinbeck's choice, I'm just trying to squeeze it into the right grammatical pigeon hole in my brain. Anyway, Jim, I think you said earlier that you also considered the sentence perhaps a little odd or something, I don't remember your exact words right now. We are actually in complete agreement! And even if we weren't, what would it matter? My signature is: Live and let live. In this case it should be understood: Use your English and let others use theirs. I'm all for linguistic freedom.

CB

Re: evening (without preposition) / to start to doing

CalifJim — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:45:34 GMT

since laughter is an uncountable noun, unlike evening.

Unlike evening? Wow! In that sentence I understand evening as uncountable! (evening-ness?) Aren't all singular nouns in English uncountable when used without articles?

CJ

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Re: evening (without preposition) / to start to doing

Re: evening (without preposition) / to start to doing