RFV discussion: December 2015–February 2016

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So how many tropospheres are there? Just one, I thought. Donnanz (talk) 10:53, 18 December 2015 (UTC)Reply

Other planets which have atmospheres also have tropospheres, so there are several of them in this solar system anyway. There are also references to "the middle and upper tropospheres," and similar formations. See this search for a bunch of examples. - TheDaveRoss 13:18, 18 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
There are many nouns for which the plural is not "normally" in use. But I don't think it is a good use of time and this space to RfV plurals because they are very uncommon, as this one might be. IMO, a stronger case could be made for challenging claims that a plural does not exist, but our usual use of this page does not challenge claims of non-existence, noncomparability etc. DCDuring TALK 13:54, 18 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
RFVing is justified on the grounds that the main entry does not mention the existence of any troposphere other than that surrounding the earth. It needs to be modified accordingly if it occurs on other planets too. Donnanz (talk) 15:00, 18 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
I amended (deprecated template usage) troposphere so that it included any planet. Someone who is more familiar with the term can adjust it further to include moons and such as I suppose it would apply on any celestial body. - TheDaveRoss 15:13, 18 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
Certainly true of at least the moon Titan. SpinningSpark 17:42, 18 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
I have reincluded Earth as that is perhaps the most important troposphere, to mankind anyway. Donnanz (talk) 12:42, 19 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
Even if there is only one of something, it is possible to talk about more, if only in imagination. (After all, there are no unicorns, but unicorn is a word.) So it's a question merely of attestation, i.e. finding the citations. I also recall something in Fowler's Modern English Usage suggesting that "protagonist" cannot have a plural (since one work can only have one protagonist), which is obviously silly when you consider a sentence like "the protagonists of King Lear and Death of a Salesman are comparable". Equinox 07:28, 19 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
Cited on Citations:tropospheres. Some citations refer to the tropospheres of different planets, some are contrasting e.g. the upper and the lower tropospheres, and some are doing both. - -sche (discuss) 06:15, 2 February 2016 (UTC)Reply