Re: [OT] The stigma of schema

["W. E. Perry" <wperry@fiduciary.com>]

Sean McGrath wrote:

> At 16:43 29/06/2001 +0800, Rick Jelliffe wrote:
> >Is there any word in English which uses the -ta plural (apart from in Rap)?
>
> desiderata plural of desideratum.
>
> Sean

Every neuter plural in Greek and Latin (find me an exception!) ends in -a.
Therefore it is very easy to take a perfect passive participle where the stem
happens to end in 't'-- from any of any of thousands of verbs, as Sean has done
with the verb 'to desire'--and create a neuter plural participle 'the things
that have been desired'. Compare erratum/errata, formed in precisely the same
way.

This is rather different from a class of neuter nouns in Greek which follow the
schema/schemata pattern between the nominative singular and plural forms.
Besides stigma/stigmata this group includes chroma/chromata for color and
sema/semata for 'sign' or 'symbol', the root of 'semantics', 'sememics', etc.

Respectfully,

Walter Perry