dependent plurals in English

[nyzoe]

I'm doing some research into so-called 'dependent plurality' in different varieties of English, mostly about how other factors in the sentence might influence the need for a dependent plural.

[skip this next bit if you're not interested in the details but just want to help me out]

An example of dependent plurality is the following. In the sentence

Comments

[hyenaboy]

Same answer. I'm from Ontario, Canada.

[eglantine_br]

Agreed. Northeastern USA. (I clearly imagined all the girls in one dress.)

[kilobites]

Agreed. I'm from the US Pacific Northwest.

[mack_the_spoon]

Yes, I think (a) sounds markedly better in each case. For me, in every question (b) would require an "each" after "the girls" to not sound bizarre/confusing.

I'm from the Pacific Northwest, USA.

[futuramafreak]

Totally agree with this, from Midwestern US.

[biascut]

pair 1:
(a) The girls are wearing blue dresses.
(b) The girls are wearing a blue dress.

a) is fine, b) just about works if the girls are wearing identical dresses, and draws attention to the blue dress. So, for comparison, "The guards had a new uniform" - the new uniform is the focus of the sentence, so it works, but "the guards are cleaning their uniforms" because the cleaning is the focus.

pair 2 (used in a situation where each girl has a different boyfriend):
(a) The girls kissed their boyfriends.
(b) The girls kissed their boyfriend.

a) is fine, b) doesn't work at all - unless it's a "we're having fun, sitting in the backseat kissing and a-hugging with Fred" situation.

pair 3 (again, each girl has a different boyfriend):
(a) The girls will be jealous if someone else kisses their boyfriends.
(b) The girls will be jealous if someone else kisses their boyfriend.

I am actually not sure about b) here, but I would lean against it being OK.

I'm English, from the Midlands/Northern England, and born in 1978.

[mintyfreshsocks]

I'm with you on all points---especially for 1. If, for examples, you said "the bridesmaids are wearing a blue dress", I would interpret them as wearing identical blue dresses.

American English, grew up in upstate NY, moved to the Bay Area. Born in the 80s.

[sayga]

That is very interesting. I have seen others say "a blue dress" would mean identical blue dresses. Personally I would never use that phrasing. I may say, "the bridesmaids are wearing identical blue dresses," but I don't feel I would put it in singular. I love this crazy stuff. :)

[tonique]

I can't add to this -- I'm not a native English speaker -- but I must thank you because now I know what this phenomenon is called!

[stacyinthecity]

1) a is better. The other option sounds like they are both in one weird giant dress that fits both of them.
2) a is better. The other option makes me imagine one boy with a girl kissing each cheek.
3) b is better. The other option makes it sound like each girl has multiple boyfriends.

American English, mostly of the western American variety (Pacific NW, Arizona, Alaska, Idaho) but I lived in NYC for 8 years and picked up a lot of the local dialect there.

[usa_p]

NYC born and raised and I agree with this. It's interesting to me that choice B for sentence 3 seems to be in the minority in the comments since it seems perfectly natural to me. Option A doesn't sound wrong exactly, just unlikely. It implies current and future boyfriends and most of the time people don't have more than one at a time or talk about having more boyfriends in the future when they've got one now, but both situations are certainly possible.