Question by justine aragones, Forum member (January 14, 2014):Is the phrase “a huge amount of work” grammatically correct?
My reply to justine aragones:
Yes, “a huge amount of work” is grammatically correct and perfectly acceptable phraseology. As a general measure of quantity, “amount” is practically synonymous with “volume” for indicating the total of a thing or things in number, size, value, or extent. Indeed, the sense of “a huge amount of work” is in general almost indistinguishable from that of “a huge volume of work”
However, when it comes to describing specific kinds of work, there’s a difference in nuance between “amount” and “volume.” In particular, lots of work of an abstract nature such as reading, thinking, or surveillance is more precisely described as “a large amount of work,” while lots of measurable physical work like loading a pile of boulders into a truck is more precisely described as “a large volume of work.” Some dissonance might be perceived if lots of abstract work is described as “a large volume of work” instead, but no such dissonance will be perceived if lots of physical work is described as “a large amount of work” instead. The differences will be largely subjective, with different writers or speakers gravitating to either “amount” or “volume” as a matter of temperament or personal style. Either way, it will be needless or foolhardy to fault them for their choice of usage.
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Should we call the song band "Carpenters" or "The Carpenters"?Question by justine aragones, Forum member (January 20, 2014):I love the songs of Karen and Richard Carpenters but I am so finicky when it comes to the band’s name. What do you think is the right way to call them: “Carpenters” or “The Carpenters”? Now I just follow the “Carpenters,” which is the name they signed under A&M records in 1969.
My reply to justine aragones:Calling them “The Carpenters”—with the capitalized definite article “The”—is the appropriate and grammatically correct way, in much the same way that place name “The Netherlands” formally requires the capitalized “The.” The presumption in the use of such capitalized appellations as “The Carpenters” is that the performers for which the name stands have the same family names (or, if they have different surnames, belong to the same family), and have decided to use the appellation as a brand or trademark. In the case of such place names as “The Netherlands,” the use of the capitalized definite article “The” and the proper name in plural is meant to indicate a collection of islands, mountains, or other geographic features. The capitalization of the “The” is a just matter of choice and style, though; in the case of “the Philippines,” for instance, the official style doesn’t require capitalizing the “the.”
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