Date: 2006-04-13 11:28 pm (UTC)
wrog: (howitzer)
From: [personal profile] wrog
What's your source for the claim that "technology" is only a mass noun?
Personal observation that the only uses otherwise have been by computer industry marketing weenies within the last 10-15 years. That the 2006 Websters might claim "technology" as a count noun wouldn't be entirely surprsing to me, and it may rather late in the game to try to kill this usage dead, but it remains grating and unnecessary nevertheless.
both "water" and "money" are count nouns, in some contexts
Yes, if we're playing Settlers of Catan, all sorts of odd things become count nouns ("I'll trade you five waters for a sheep, 2 stone, and a flying monkey").

And there are various poetic constructions ("the waters of the Euphrates", "the technologies of the Incas") that I don't actually object to -- but even so these are still not really full-fledged count-noun uses (how many waters does the Euphrates have?).
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