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Why does "Results Processor" sound correct? A follow-up question would be, is it in fact grammatically correct? Plug in other plural words, though, like "Scans Processor" or "Apples Processor" and it doesn't sound right at all.

Is "Results" acting as a plural noun in that phrase or something else? Google shows that "results" is also a third person present verb, but I wouldn't think a verb fits in front of "processor" like that.

Can someone explain?

Bob
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  • I apologize if this is a dupe. I didn't see anything in similar questions or searches, but I honestly don't know what terms I'm looking for to explain this. – Bob Nov 19 '15 at 21:50
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    If "scans" or "apples" denotes a processable (and countable) entity in your system there is nothing wrong with the terms. Likely your ear is familiar with hearing "the results from xxx" but not "the scans from xxx" or "the apples from xxx". But if you only ever have one "scan" or "apple" at a time (vs processing several together in a "batch") then the word should be in singular form. – Hot Licks Nov 19 '15 at 22:03
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    I don't think it's an obvious dup (I certainly can't recall or locate an "original"). As a (well-)seasoned native speaker I agree that results processor/processing sounds at least "credible", whereas normally you wouldn't want to use a plural in such constructions. I'm currently baffled too - good question! – FumbleFingers Nov 19 '15 at 22:06
  • @FumbleFingers that's good to hear, that means I'm not going crazy :) I was worried that maybe my brain was just playing tricks on me and that this apparent discrepancy was an illusion – Bob Nov 19 '15 at 22:11
  • ...there's Adjectival noun - singular or plural or both?, which may well be effectively the same question. But it's only got one answer, and no upvotes for either question or answer, so I wouldn't closevote against it anyway. – FumbleFingers Nov 19 '15 at 22:18
  • Although it's relatively uncommon, I have no problem with *a schools inspector, whereas a restaurants inspector* would set my teeth on edge. To a certain extent, I can understand a schools inspector as one who inspects multiple schools, as opposed to a school inspector who may just be an inspector sent by the school (to parents' homes). – FumbleFingers Nov 19 '15 at 22:22
  • I think it is all about getting used to the collocation (with the plural). Search for "markets analyst" and you get lots of hits. And the plural makes sense here, too. Plus, there's even ears bender! – anemone Nov 19 '15 at 22:48
  • @FumbleFingers - Schools inspector sounds weird to my US ears -- there are multiple schools, yes, but presumably only one is inspected at a time. – Hot Licks Nov 20 '15 at 00:04
  • @Hot Licks: If we're to believe Google's corpus splits, the plural is somewhat less common in AmE, but it's hardly non-existent. Whatever - surely you don't think *an accounts manager* sounds totally weird as well? How about *the accounts clerk?* – FumbleFingers Nov 20 '15 at 00:45
  • @FumbleFingers - An accounts manager manages multiple accounts at the same time, in some sort of synchrony. "Schools inspector" only makes sense if this is an inspector of the entire school system (it's accounts, policies, etc), vs serially inspecting each school. – Hot Licks Nov 20 '15 at 01:13
  • Schools inspector is a re-ordering of the original, inspector of schools. So it has a lineage that brought it into being in its current form. Restaurant inspector is a much more recent role - there was no Victorian Inspector of restaurants to grandfather in the usage of restaurants inspector – Euan M Nov 20 '15 at 07:00
  • The only difference in usage wrt accounts manager is the time granularity of the synchrony. – Euan M Nov 20 '15 at 07:02
  • @Hot Licks: Why did you provide your answer as a comment? – Euan M Nov 20 '15 at 07:03
  • (1) Both "results processor" and "result processor" are used, looking at a Google search, though neither gives a vast number of hits. (2) There is no grammatical rule being broken by using either variant. (3) There is a strong bias towards the choice of singular-form attributive nouns in many cases. This makes eg 'apples pie' sound outlandish, even though it may well be more logical. (4) However, this can be overridden where the plural nature of the attributive is better (or even needs to be) emphasised: sports centre (emphasising plurality); sports car (sounds better). Results processor (?) – Edwin Ashworth Nov 26 '15 at 10:39

1 Answers1

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It's because "results" is acting as an uncountable noun when you use it that way. (The word "results" is special because it can be countable or uncountable in different situations.) What goes into the processor is a lot of stuff that's generally called "results", not "result number one", "result number two", and so on.

Other uncountable nouns work fine in the same position: rice processor, clothing processor, etc.

David
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