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Mister Micawber Language Coach

Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 3970 Location: Yokohama, Japan
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Wed May 07, 2008 21:00 pm knowledge or knowledges? |
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Thank You for your answer, but there are cases where "knowledges" is used. In relation to the countable / uncountable distinction, it may be of stylistic relevance, in your analysis of a passage, to ask the question whether it is possible for the writer, character, or speaker to use an uncountable noun instead of a countable one, or vice versa. We may also note here that there are some uncountable nouns which are treated as countable in recent English. Words such as 'knowledges' and 'imageries' have appeared in the plural form (and are therefore regarded as countable, although they are traditionally treated as uncountable in English): you may ask yourselves if any stylistic significance is achieved by doing this. |
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Nata New Member

Joined: 14 Mar 2008 Posts: 2 Location: Ukraine
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Mister Micawber Language Coach

Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 3970 Location: Yokohama, Japan
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Thu May 08, 2008 4:42 am knowledge or knowledges? |
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Hi Nata
I agree with MM that the word 'knowledge' is uncountable.
Nevertheless, I did a search of the NY Times for the word 'knowledges'. There were a few results, but of those, some were actually misspellings or hyphenations of the word 'acknowledges', some seemed to be simple typos, and some appeared to be in texts written by non-native speakers of English. That left just a handful of 'knowledges' and it seemed that what the authors generally meant was 'types of knowledge'.
If I were you, I would not use the word 'knowledge' as a plural. Stick with the traditional, uncountable usage. . _________________ Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English |
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Yankee I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 16 Apr 2006 Posts: 7443 Location: Northeast US
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