Singularification
May. 31st, 2013 02:43 pmhttp://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4655#more-4655
Apparently, it's now become common to refer to an individual piece of electronic mail as "an email"</irony>. And to an individual piece of spam as "a spam". And to an individual blog post as "a blog".
I'm not sure how to find peace between my inner descriptivist who says "duh, obviously" and my inner prescriptivist who says "AGH! MY EYES! KILL IT WITH FIRE FROM ORBIT! IT BURNS! IT BURNS! ZE GOGGLES, ZEY DO NOTHING!"
Apparently, it's now become common to refer to an individual piece of electronic mail as "an email"</irony>. And to an individual piece of spam as "a spam". And to an individual blog post as "a blog".
I'm not sure how to find peace between my inner descriptivist who says "duh, obviously" and my inner prescriptivist who says "AGH! MY EYES! KILL IT WITH FIRE FROM ORBIT! IT BURNS! IT BURNS! ZE GOGGLES, ZEY DO NOTHING!"