Armchair Linguists: 'code' vs. 'codes'--or why I write 'code' and my manager asks for 'codes'
- by Ukko
I wanted to tap into the collective wisdom here to see if I can get some insight into one of my pet peeves, people who thread "code" as a countable noun. Let me also preface this by saying that I am not talking about anyone who speaks english as a second language, this is a native phenomenon.
For those of us who slept through grammar class there are two classes of nouns which basically refer to things that are countable and non-countable (sometimes referred to as count and noncount). For instance 'sand' is a non-count noun and 'apple' is count. You can talk about "two apples" but "two sands" does not parse.
The bright students then would point out a word like "beer" where is looks like this is violated. Beer as a substance is certainly a non-count noun, but I can ask for "two beers" without offending the grammar police. The reason is that there are actually two words tied up in that one utterance, Definition #1 is a yummy golden substance and Definition #2 is a colloquial term for a container of said substance. #1 is non-count and #2 is countable.
This gets to my problem with "codes" as a countable noun. In my mind the code that we programmers write is non-count, "I wrote some code today." When used in the plural like "Have you got the codes" I can only assume that you are asking if I have the cryptographically significant numbers for launching a missile or the like.
Every time my peer in marketing asks about when we will have the new codes ready I have a vision of rooms of code breakers going over the latest Enigma coded message. I corrected the usage in all the documents I am asked to review, but then I noticed that our customer was also using the work "codes" when they meant "code".
At this point I have realized that there is a significant sub-population that uses "codes" and they seem to be impervious to what I see as the dominant "correct" usage. This is the part I want some help on, has anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Do you know what group it is associated with, old Fortran programmer perhaps? Is it a regionalism?
I have become quick to change my terms when I notice a customer's usage, but it would be nice to know if I am sending a proposal somewhere what style they expect. I would hate to get canned with a review of "Ha, these guy's must be morons they don't even know 'code' is plural!"
