Re: [Chicken-hackers] Parenthesis synonyms change

[John Cowan]

Kon Lovett scripsit:

> Spelling was correct & the use of the plural was correct.

Actually, no.  It's a rule of English that when a noun modifies
another noun, the first noun is singular, and never mind the semantics.
An animal that eats rats (plural) is a rat-eater, not a rats-eater.
Actual experiments asking native speakers "What is a word for an
animal that eats rats?" and "Which sounds better, 'rats-eater' or
'rat-eater'?" have demonstrated this; see Steven Pinker's book _Words
and Rules_.  (Irregular nouns get cut a little slack: people are more
willing to produce and accept "mice-eater" than "rats-eater".)

The ungrammatical form should be retained for backward compatibility,
possibly with a warning, but the correct form "no-parenthesis-synonyms"
should be the documented form.

-- 
Only do what only you can do.               John Cowan <address@hidden>
  --Edsger W. Dijkstra's advice
    to a student in search of a thesis