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([2001:a61:2482:101:3351:6160:8173:cc31]) by smtp.gmail.com with ESMTPSA id i6sm24207794wrc.82.2020.04.27.12.50.15 (version=TLS1_3 cipher=TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 bits=128/128); Mon, 27 Apr 2020 12:50:15 -0700 (PDT) Cc: mtk.manpages@gmail.com, Helge Kreutzmann , linux-man@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Errors in man pages, here: random(4): Singular/Plural To: Jakub Wilk References: <20200419064819.GA31654@Debian-50-lenny-64-minimal> <32c7d19a-ac60-0250-869a-5b5c707b56e2@gmail.com> <20200427141453.irpiezazavf656kz@jwilk.net> From: "Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)" Message-ID: <964c4877-cca5-21c6-b036-0d714f87976d@gmail.com> Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2020 21:50:13 +0200 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.7.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20200427141453.irpiezazavf656kz@jwilk.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Language: en-US Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Sender: linux-man-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-man@vger.kernel.org Hi Jakub, On 4/27/20 4:14 PM, Jakub Wilk wrote: > * Michael Kerrisk (man-pages) , 2020-04-20, 08:12: >>> vary → varies ? >>> >>> "This file gives the size of the entropy pool. The semantics of this file " >>> "vary across kernel versions:" >> >> "semantics" is considered a plural noun, so "vary" is right. > > I don't think that's correct. Despite the trailing "s", "semantics" is > not plural; it's uncountable. > > https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/semantics includes > the following examples: > > The semantics of the language _is_ based on a translation, ... > > Action semantics _is_ useful for reasoning about language implementations. So, this to me comes closest to how I use the word: https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/semantics [[ 1 the study of the meaning of words and phrases 2 formal the meaning of a word or expression GRAMMAR: Singular or plural verb? In meaning 1, semantics is followed by a singular verb: Semantics is not the same as syntax. In meaning 2, semantics can be followed by a singular or plural verb: The semantics of this phrase is/are difficult to pin down. ]] Obviously there's a bit of variation in what people accept, but for me, in meaning 2 (which matches the case in the man-page), I'd always expect a plural. And then I was about to say: "and it seems the original author of the text was of the same opinion". But then I checked the git log... But do a Google or some such search for "semantics is" vs "semantics are", and you'll see that the latter is very common. Cheers, Michael -- Michael Kerrisk Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/