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Should it be singular or plural after “each other’s” here.

  1. They touched each other’s nose.

  2. They touched each other’s noses.

Are both correct?

John Lawler notes in another post that each other can be broken up. This would give us:

  1. They each touched the other's nose
  2. *They each touched the other's noses

However, this rewriting of the sentences seems to be slightly different, perhaps because of the definite article, the, before the word other's.

Note:

Of course, it's trivially true in relation to this question that the example (4) would be fine if people had several noses. The asterisk in the example indicates that this is not a grammatical means of indicating the same meaning as given in (1).

Sasan
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    *Work/s* in your cited context can be either singular or plural (compare He's a great artist! I really like his work/s), so it doesn't really tell you much about how "each other's NOUN" works in such contexts. A better example context might be, say, [*They touched each other's nose/s.***](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=each+other%27s+nose%2Ceach+other%27s+noses&year_start=1900&year_end=2000&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3) As you'll see from that chart, most people use the plural there, but singular is far from unknown. – FumbleFingers Jun 07 '23 at 14:50
  • @FumbleFingers So are both correct in my example? – Sasan Jun 07 '23 at 15:13
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    Define "correct". As it happens, my natural inclination was to go for the singular in both the *work* and the *nose* examples. But if there was really a concept of "correct usage", it could only apply to *nose/s* - because as I pointed out, both *work* and *works* can often be effectively synonymous. But *nose* and *noses* are obviously completely different - you couldn't possibly say something like She's got a great face for a model! I really like her noses! – FumbleFingers Jun 07 '23 at 15:20
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    I don't think the edit was a particularly good one. The reason for closure was not because you asked about "each other's work" vs "each other's works", so changing work with nose still doesn't show research or effort. P.S Use the past simple for the original example: “Researchers cited…” just like you did for "touched" – Mari-Lou A Jun 07 '23 at 21:24
  • No one tell you whether researchers admired one work or many works of other researchers. Either could make sense. If I admired your autobiography, and you liked mine, then "each other's work" works. – Yosef Baskin Jun 07 '23 at 22:11
  • @Mari-LouA When describing writing, the convention is to use the present tense, not the past, though. Especially with academic writing. – Araucaria - Him Jun 09 '23 at 10:53
  • @Araucaria. I would disagree, the original "The researchers cite each other’s work(s)", which is still in the title, sounds odd, as if describing a habitual or obligatory event, maybe where the OP studies it is like that, but without more context, the sentence sounds a little odd. The past tense sounds better to my ears. – Mari-Lou A Jun 09 '23 at 11:26
  • @Mari-LouA It's part of what we teach on our academic skills courses at universities in the UK to use the present tense when referring to the content of written texts, including when referring to the authors. So for example we would always write "Smith (2020) argues that xyz" rather than argued. Have a look at this helpful page from Texas State University. PS: might make an interesting or useful Q here or on ELL! – Araucaria - Him Jun 10 '23 at 09:31
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    @FumbleFingers Well, you'll need to vote to reopen it too! – Araucaria - Him Jun 10 '23 at 09:38
  • There is a comprehensive (near-) overview of the distributive singular and when to use it at 'everybody's using a cell phone' vs 'everybody's using cell phones'. Rappaport has 'When each part of a plural subject possesses something individually, the thing possessed is generally used in the plural as well. For example:

    The two women blew their noses.' However, for this special case, Jakub Marian has ...

     – Edwin Ashworth Jun 10 '23 at 10:50
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    done the research: 'What about the noun that follows “each other’s”—are we supposed to use a singular noun (e.g. “each other’s face”) or a plural noun (e.g. “each other’s faces”)?

    The answer is: Both forms are common.' // Google ngrams would be a good place to try to check usage in individual cases; 'touched each other’s noses' seems the more common.

     – Edwin Ashworth Jun 10 '23 at 10:50
  • @Araucaria-Nothereanymore.: I feel I'm getting sucked into a meaningless disagreement. I already voted to reopen at least once (possibly twice, with the Q being closed again in between, I don't recall). But if one or more mods still wants it closed I think we're just p***ing in the wind. – FumbleFingers Jun 10 '23 at 16:25
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    Perhaps it's an age thing. Here's the usage chart for *do each other's job/s* in the post-war decades when I was picking up my language skills. During that period, the singular was most common, but it's all changed now. – FumbleFingers Jun 10 '23 at 16:34
  • @FumbleFingers Aha, but I've addressed the so-called 'research' issue to placate the modems and further highlight the rub. And, after all, you did bother to go and do the further edit! So I think you efforts deserve a reopen. – Araucaria - Him Jun 10 '23 at 18:18
  • @FumbleFingers Pinging in the wind? – Araucaria - Him Jun 10 '23 at 18:40
  • @FumbleFingers Unless, of course, you mean postulating in the wind - but you need more asterisks there. – Araucaria - Him Jun 10 '23 at 18:43
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    @Araucaria-Nothereanymore.: One man's postulate is another man's piss-take! :) But the wise man doesn't postulate taking waste fluids out of the moderators! – FumbleFingers Jun 10 '23 at 19:08
  • @FumbleFingers Definitely changing: just look at how kids these days construe none and neither to be plural not singular as we were taught. CRINGE! :) – tchrist Jun 12 '23 at 02:00
  • @tchrist: I don't think I was ever taught anything like that. We didn't even waste time on stuff like *who / whom, and we certainly* didn't know about not ending sentences with preposition, and that sort of garbage. But we had to get our heads round English from Chaucer thru Shakespeare to Dickens to Hemmingway, which covered a wide range. But it's no surprise to me that most instances of [*They touched] each the other's hand* are a century or two old. Somehow, we just lost that article, I suppose. – FumbleFingers Jun 12 '23 at 02:28

1 Answers1

5

Correct is somewhat subjective here. One version is more logical; the other is more common. Sometimes you must decide between standing on principle and sounding normal. Says one linguist:

What about the noun that follows “each other’s”—are we supposed to use a singular noun (e.g. “each other’s face”) or a plural noun (e.g. “each other’s faces”)?

The answer is: Both forms are common. Since “each other’s” basically means “(mutually) the other person’s”, and we wouldn’t say “the other person’s faces” (unless the other person is two-faced), it makes more sense to say “each other’s face”. Nevertheless, the plural form seems to be more common in modern usage, so it can hardly be considered incorrect. In summary:

We saw each other’s faces. (correct, more common)
We saw each other’s face. (correct, more logical)

Source: Jakub Marian — Each other’s vs. each others’ in English

In these search results at the Corpus of Contemporary American English, you can see it in action and judge for yourself:

each other 's face
each other 's faces
each other 's nose
each other 's noses

Tinfoil Hat
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  • Not only is the plural more common, but it also has a logical basis (apparently missed by Marian): The subject is plural, and it does not appear that multiple people are touching only one nose (or that multiple people are seeing only one face). – MarcInManhattan Jun 17 '23 at 00:51
  • @MarcInManhattan — One nose touched per person in the above sentences. – Tinfoil Hat Jun 18 '23 at 00:34
  • Yes, exactly, so plural people touching plural noses. It makes sense. – MarcInManhattan Jun 18 '23 at 00:49