The end of a certain sigmatoid is an
ing, but there is no rule to justify that, so why is it not an
s?
Do
Accounting Department and
Department of Accounts generate the same world reference/Inner Reality image?
Accounting reminds us of
accountants, and
accounts reminds us of
banks instead.
What about
billing, and
bills? Is it the same thing saying
Bills Department, and
Billing Department? Are both expressions acceptable, as for rules of speech?
Expressions where the doubt arises are not missing:
Housing Department or
Houses Department?
Financing Department or
Finances Department?
Operating Expenses or
Operations Expenses?
It is Housing Department, but
Financing Department is a department that finances, and
Finances Department is a department that deals with finances.
Expenses made because of the daily activity of a business are
Operating Expenses, but expenses with medical operations, so surgeries, are not
Operations Expenses because the preposition used to form the expression was
with, not
of.
Why
ending, and not
end?
There is also
ends, as in
the ends do not justify the means.
If a thing such as a
starting point exists, then a thing such as an
ending point also does.
Whilst the sigmatoid
billing ends with
ing, the ending
ing is not very different from the ending
s.
What about the sigmatoids
killing, and
kill in isolation?
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, published in 2005, teaches: when it is an animal, it is a
kill; when it is a person, it is a
killing.
Mary may do a good thing in a certain situation, and Mary may also do some good acting on stage.
Mary may watch the first, and the last acts of a play, and not like them.
Truth is that the
acts of a play relate to
acting in a different way to the way that
killing relates to
kills.
Yet in another way do
logging, and
logs relate.
There is an extra
g there, but what a shocking difference in what regards world references:
cutting off trees, and the pieces of the trees that we have
cut off.
To make it all more interesting, there is
whaling but not
dolphining.
There is also no
crocodiling.
