Singular in -s: news, mathematics, measles

Gist. A few nouns end in -s but are grammatically singular: they agree with is, has, this. These are news, names of sciences and activities in -ics (mathematics, physics, linguistics, economics, politics, athletics), names of diseases (measles, mumps) and games (billiards, darts). In English, number is determined by agreement, not by final -s.

Conditions and exceptions.

• News was once plural ("new things"), now only singular: the news is good. The lemma is news, not new.
• Mathematics follows the Greek neuter plural; politics, economics, ethics can be plural meaning "views, practice": his politics are…. EWT annotates politics, economics as NNS with Number=Ptan, mathematics — NN, Sing.
• Ethics as the plural of ethic ("work ethics") — an ordinary plural with lemma ethic.
• Series, species, means — zero plural (see noun-plural-zero), not this type.
• Linguistics is my favorite subject — an example from the UD guidelines.
• The lemma is the whole form with -s: news, mathematics, physics, measles.

Examples. The news is on. Linguistics is my favorite subject. Measles is contagious.

In UD. NOUN; news — NN, Number=Sing; sciences in -ics — NN Sing or NNS Ptan by agreement; lemma = form.

Sources. UD docs/_en/feat/Number.md (the news, linguistics is my favorite subject — Sing; "linguistics … singular, … none of these is a pluralia tantum"); Sweet NEG I §998 (text-1, p. 343: news — a plural that became singular), §1724 (p. 521: mathematics on the model of the Greek plural); Whitney §129 (text-1, p. 74: news and means "properly plural", now singular; sciences in -ics — singular); Santorini 1990, §4.1, pp. 17–18 (Linguistics/NN is; Mechanics/NN is vs The mechanics/NNS are); Jespersen MEG II 5.76–5.78₁ (text-2, p. 187–191: measles — singular; sciences in -ics tend to the singular; news — singular); Kruisinga II.2 §808 (text-3, p. 49), II.3 §§2136–2141 (text-4, p. 321–324).

rule: en.morph.news-singular
what: news — a singular noun, lemma news
match: n[upos=NOUN, form=news, !feats.Typo]
require: n[xpos=NN, feats.Number=Sing, lemma=news]
severity: error
source: UD en feat/Number (the news — Sing); Sweet NEG I §998; Whitney §129

rule: en.morph.ics-lemma
what: names of sciences and diseases in -s — lemma with -s (mathematics, not mathematic)
match: n[upos=NOUN, form=mathematics|physics|linguistics|economics|politics|athletics|gymnastics|phonetics|genetics|electronics|measles|mumps|billiards, !feats.Typo]
require: n[lemma=mathematics|physics|linguistics|economics|politics|athletics|gymnastics|phonetics|genetics|electronics|measles|mumps|billiards]
severity: error
source: UD en feat/Number; Sweet NEG I §1724; Whitney §129; EWT 2.18 practice

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/en/seeds/morph/noun-singular-in-s/