Talk:impossibility
Add topicLatest comment: 5 months ago by Brett in topic Sense separation
Sense separation[change]
@Brett: Hi, I'm not exactly sure whether the countable and uncountable sense should be combined. As a countable noun, consider the second example sentence:
- Getting to work […] is an impossibility.
This doesn't fit the definition of "the fact that [something] cannot happen"; the getting to work bit is the very thing that cannot happen. Merriam-Webster's online dictionary for one considers the senses separate. Hythonia (talk) 21:45, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
- Yes, I see your point.--Brett (talk) 21:53, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
- Thinking more about it, is it ever uncountable? You wouldn't use it without a determiner, and much impossibility doesn't work.--Brett (talk) 21:57, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
- Usage without a determiner is uncommon, but it does take place; take this San Francisco Chronicle article, for one (quoting a justice of the SC of California):
- "Impossibility can occasionally excuse noncompliance with a statute," Justice Goodwin Liu said, since a manufacturer charged with violating the law could argue that it had done everything possible to comply. "But impossibility does not authorize a court to go beyond interpreting a statute and simply invalidate it."
- If I were to conjecture, it's rare because people rarely talk about impossibility itself rather than the impossibility of things (but, yeah, sometimes they do). Hythonia (talk) 22:26, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
- Thank you!--Brett (talk) 00:26, 29 November 2023 (UTC)
- Usage without a determiner is uncommon, but it does take place; take this San Francisco Chronicle article, for one (quoting a justice of the SC of California):
- Thinking more about it, is it ever uncountable? You wouldn't use it without a determiner, and much impossibility doesn't work.--Brett (talk) 21:57, 28 November 2023 (UTC)