|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393
enthusiast
|
enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 393 |
I would say no, don't use the plural. English adjectives don't have plurals. If we continued to inflect whole phrases as if in the language they came from, we'd say 'courts martials'; but we say 'courts martial' (if adhering to French style - or of course 'court martials' if wholly Englishing it).
The principle is probably that English has a category of plurality in nouns, and we admit foreign ways of forming it. But we don't ever import foreign grammar as such.
For example, you don't run 'emeritus' through the Latin cases, and say 'Oh, Professor Emerite', and 'give it to the professor emerito'. Adjectival plural is in the same boat: it's a feature of Latin grammar but not of English.
It would be different if the whole phrase was Latin: and indeed professor emeritus could be considered so, but its plural would then be professores emeriti.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Thanks Nicholas, for saying what I would have said if you hadn't said it first. While you can certain use emeriti and you would be absolutely correct linguistically from the point of view of Latin, every resource I've looked at says it is either uncommon or unusual usage. Stick to emeritus. Actually, I incline rather than decline towards tsuwm's approach. Of course, you could just say that they're pensioned off, or put out to grass or have been sent to the knacker's yard, or something. 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773
Pooh-Bah
|
|
OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,773 |
In reply to:
All the former Chief Justices are male, but I am not sure the same is true of the former Chief Judges. I believe a jurist sitting on the US Supreme Court is properly titled Justice, not Judge.
I work in the Michigan court system, Keiva, and so I'm talking about Michigan courts. Members of the judiciary sitting on the Michigan Supreme Court call themselves Justices, while members of the judiciary on the lower courts -- including the Court of Appeals -- are Judges.
The Michigan Court of Appeals has only had a few Chief Judges:
T John Lesinski
Robert Danhof
Martin Doctoroff
Maura Corrigan
Richard Bandstra
While not all of these are male, the two who are still on the Court and thus to be designated as emeritus/emeriti/emeritorum/emerito/emeritis/emeritum/emeritos/emerito/emerite are both male.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
[slapping his forehiead at own stupidity -e] Spart, eye neglected to see the Michigan connection. Sorry. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Why are so many of y'all having havers over a simple question which has a simple answer? A Latin passive participle, the 4th of the 4 principle parts of most verbs, is often used as an adjective, and is always given in the nominative singular masculine form and in the 2nd Declension form and is declined accordingly. A single judge who is a man would be a Judge emeritus, a woman would be a Judge emerita; two women Judges emeritae, two or more all men or a mixture of men and women, Judges emeriti. It's exacly the same as alumnus: you have one alumnus or alumna, two alumni or alumnae.
Jimthedog: Did you see the correct answer, or have you not got that far yet?
Incidentally, the above is not just an academic position -- I have actually seen a woman referred to as a something-or-other emerita. As to the propriety of mixing an English word with a Latin modifier and declining the Latin (at least as far as respects number and gender -- we don't pay attention to case), this is not infrequent. In fact, there is a word for it : macaronic.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
In fact, there is a word for it : macaronic.
Does macaronic refer to whenever more than one language appears in a linguistic unit?
"We slipped out of the theatre, before the pas de deux."
In other words, how do you know macaroni when you see it?
Noodle head,
WW
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
well, the "original meaning" (hi bill) pertained to poesy and went something like this: Used to designate a burlesque form of verse in which vernacular words are introduced into a Latin context with Latin terminations and in Latin constructions. Also, applied to similar verse of which the basis is Greek instead of Latin; and loosely to any form of verse in which two or more languages are mingled together.
buthence® of language, style, etc.: Resembling the mixed jargon of macaronic poetry.
[The word seems to have been invented by Teofilo Folengo (‘Merlinus Cocaius’) whose ‘macaronic’ poem (Liber Macaronices) was published in 1517. He explains (ed. 2, 1521) that the ‘macaronic art’ is so called from macaroni, which is ‘quoddam pulmentum farina, caseo, botiro compaginatum, grossum, rude, et rusticanum’.]
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
btw, byb, what is "a mixture of men and women"?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
btw, byb, what is "a mixture of men and women"?Depends on context: (a) An orgy  (b) A crowd  (c) A hermaphrodite 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
so ck, do you adjudge that byb was speaking of orgy emeriti?
Interesting fine distinction of terms here -- and a subtle confilict within AHD:
1) AHD, under "mixture', claimes that "blend and amalgam imply that the original components have lost their distinctness" [hence inapposite here]", -- but that "mixture has the widest application".
2) But elsewhere, under "mixed" and "mix (transitive)", AHD implies that the principal meaning is "blended".
I am reminded of the first bawdy comment I ever heard from my father's mouth. Debunking one who oversimplified by asserting what "the average American" wants, my father, "The Average American has one t*t and one b*ll."
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,670
Members9,187
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
149
guests, and
43
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
