Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 September 14

= September 14 =

Each
Why is the pronoun "each" singular?? Georgia guy (talk) 12:06, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Because it refers to the individuals within a group. Usually you can see the single-ness if you mentally replace "each" with "each one" or "each individual". --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 12:10, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Which is why it is inappropriate to use "each" and "both" in the same construction, e.g. "Both of them each spoke up". --  Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  14:18, 14 September 2022 (UTC)

Georgia_guy -- There are a lot of superficial paradoxes of number in the English language, where a singular grammatical form refers to more than one entity, or a plural grammatical form refers to a single entity. You could look at the relevant parts of Otto Jespersen's classic 7-volume grammar to see examples of such, without too much distracting technical linguistic terminology, and with quotes from authors provided... AnonMoos (talk) 14:27, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
 * AnonMoos, the consideration of "each" a singular noun is an example of the former part of your first sentence. But can you name an example of the latter part?? Georgia guy (talk) 15:17, 14 September 2022 (UTC)
 * See pluralia tantum... -- AnonMoos (talk) 15:22, 14 September 2022 (UTC)