Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 September 14
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September 14 edit
Each edit
Why is the pronoun "each" singular?? Georgia guy (talk) 12:06, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
- Because it refers to the individuals within a group. Usually you can see the single-ness if you mentally replace "each" with "each one" or "each individual". --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:10, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
- Which is why it is inappropriate to use "each" and "both" in the same construction, e.g. "Both of them
eachspoke up". -- Jack of Oz [pleasantries] 14:18, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
- Which is why it is inappropriate to use "each" and "both" in the same construction, e.g. "Both of them
Georgia_guy -- There are a lot of superficial paradoxes of number in the English language, where a singular grammatical form refers to more than one entity, or a plural grammatical form refers to a single entity. You could look at the relevant parts of Otto Jespersen's classic 7-volume grammar to see examples of such, without too much distracting technical linguistic terminology, and with quotes from authors provided... AnonMoos (talk) 14:27, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
- AnonMoos, the consideration of "each" a singular noun is an example of the former part of your first sentence. But can you name an example of the latter part?? Georgia guy (talk) 15:17, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
- See pluralia tantum... -- AnonMoos (talk) 15:22, 14 September 2022 (UTC)