Still life or still lives?

[Kaputnik]

This sort of usage question is interesting to me, possibly less so to others.

Although we all know that the plural of life is lives, it has always seemed intuitively obvious that the plural of "still life" (meaning the kind of painting, and not a person's life which is characterized by stillness) should be "still lifes". I say intuitively, because I've never really worked it out logically. And as I don't move enough in artistic circles for the question to come up very often, I'd never bothered to look it up until now.

So I was interested, when I finally did look it up (well, Google it) just now, to find agreement with my intuition.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/still-life-compound-irregular-plurals

[BayesianPrior]

Surely it follows the pattern of Governors General. Stills life?

:crazy_pilot:

[Ole Juul]

Thanks for the confirming article. Though I still take pause when confronted with the situation, I find it pretty obvious. A still life has nothing to do with a life and is a thing unto itself.

[guyy]

There are a lot of other factors besides logic: ease of pronunciation, need for differentiation from other words and forms, influence of other languages, etc.

[An old bloke]

The easy fix: singular - still life picture, and plural -- still life pictures.

[kaliuzhkin]

The easy fix: singular - still life picture, and plural -- still life pictures.

Exactly. "Still life" is an adjective, not a noun. It describes the type of picture.

[BayesianPrior]

Unhelpfully, still life translates as "nature morte" in French. This phrase is treated as a noun and when pluralised, the modifier "morte" must agree with the subject "nature", viz. Les natures mortes.

[Ole Juul]

The easy fix: singular - still life picture, and plural -- still life pictures.

Exactly. "Still life" is an adjective, not a noun. It describes the type of picture.

I call it a noun because it's a object. I wouldn't call it an adjective just because it's a type. A truck is a type of vehicle and it's a noun.

[An old bloke]

The easy fix: singular - still life picture, and plural -- still life pictures.

Exactly. "Still life" is an adjective, not a noun. It describes the type of picture.

I call it a noun because it's a object. I wouldn't call it an adjective just because it's a type. A truck is a type of vehicle and it's a noun.

We now venture where grammarians fear to go.

Noun or adjective? Given that the terms portrait and still life are commonly used to refer to pictures of a certain type, one could equally correctly say that it is both. Using your analogy, a truck could be one of several types -- a diesel truck, a petrol powered truck, an electric truck, and even a hand truck ( https://www.thefreedictionary.com/hand+truck ).

Discuss.

[Ole Juul]

Noun or adjective? Given that the terms portrait and still life are commonly used to refer to pictures of a certain type, one could equally correctly say that it is both. Using your analogy, a truck could be one of several types -- a diesel truck, a petrol powered truck, an electric truck, and even a hand truck ( https://www.thefreedictionary.com/hand+truck ).

I don't understand what you're saying. You seem to agree with me that "still life" is commonly used to refer to pictures of a certain type, so it's a picture, which is noun.

[An old bloke]

Two examples:
1. I painted a still life). (noun)
2. I painted a still life picture, (adjective) (noun)

Does that make sense?

[Ole Juul]

Two examples:
1. I painted a still life). (noun)
2. I painted a still life picture, (adjective) (noun)

Does that make sense?

Not to me. :(

I think I'm not the only one who thinks it's a noun. I notice other languages which are similar to English, like Danish and German, use a single word; stilleben, stillleben.

Come to think of it, "still life picture" is not right, because "still life" is a picture.

[An old bloke]

Two examples:
1. I painted a still life). (noun)
2. I painted a still life picture, (adjective) (noun)

Does that make sense?

Not to me. :(

I think I'm not the only one who thinks it's a noun. I notice other languages which are similar to English, like Danish and German, use a single word; stilleben, stillleben.

Come to think of it, "still life picture" is not right, because "still life" is a picture.

As I said earlier, it's a grey zone into which even grammarians fear to venture.

[An old bloke]

Two examples:
1. I painted a still life). (noun)
2. I painted a still life picture, (adjective) (noun)

Does that make sense?

Not to me. :(

I think I'm not the only one who thinks it's a noun. I notice other languages which are similar to English, like Danish and German, use a single word; stilleben, stillleben.

Come to think of it, "still life picture" is not right, because "still life" is a [TYPE OF] picture.

As I said earlier, it is a grey zone into which even grammarians fear to venture. As they would tell you, it's much of a muchness.

[kaliuzhkin]

FWIW, Oxford Languages (https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en) defines it as: noun




a painting or drawing of an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit and flowers and objects contrasting with these in texture, such as bowls and glassware.
"a collector of Dutch and Flemish still lifes"






still life as a genre of painting or drawing.
"a master of still life"



Note: they use "still lifes" as the plural. So does wikipedia "(plural: still lifes)".

"Still life painting" can either be the object which you can look at but not touch, or the act of creating that object.

I give up.

[silverlifter]

You can test the ambiguity the following way:

1. The still lifes of Georgio Morandi
2. The still lives of Georgio Morandi

1. Makes sense and describes the works of the artist. 2. is ambiguous: it is referring to his work, or stages of his life?

[Igraine]

The way I understand it, a still life is a type of painting, or art piece, so it’s a noun. If there was more than one, it would be “still lifes”....not “still lives”....it may not be proper grammatically, but it’s the way I’ve always heard it pronounced in the art world.

[Cyril]

Still life is a conceptual art form . It could be either a drawing/ photo or paint.
Nothing unrelating to a still life of somebody or to relating to state of life of some body.
That why it is used in plural with a S.

The work of still life ( Singular
The work of still lifes ( As plurals

Do anyone know what is the translation in French ?

""NATURE MORTE " + = nature dead = ( Lifeless nature) + still life.

The language is not complicating if there are less rules..

[BayesianPrior]

Do anyone know what is the translation in French ?

""NATURE MORTE " + = nature dead = ( Lifeless nature) + still life.

The language is not complicating if there are less rules..

See post #7. (https://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/34339-Still-life-or-still-lives?p=325207&viewfull=1#post325207)

[Cyril]

In French they add s or Es to make plural. It is not the answer.

But here the question is what is Still life?
It is a concept of art pre arranged or visualised as something find in the nature and record it.

Can you do it with living people or animal. OF COURSE ARRANGE THEM THE WAY YOU WANT IT OF FIND THEM AS THEY ARE RECORD / DRAW THEM / PAINT THEM.
I ASK KAPUTNIK
when do you use this PARTICULAR WORD STILL LIFE IN YOUR LANGUAGE. Go back to that place so you have an answer ? I think you'll be wise enough to not to go anywhere else or GOOGLE TO FIND YOUR ANSWER.

If you have not done any art and heard this before the above all arguments come behind you.

[BayesianPrior]

In French they add s or Es to make plural. It is not the answer.

But here the question is what is Still life?
It is a concept of art pre arranged or visualised as something find in the nature and record it.

Can you do it with living people or animal. OF COURSE ARRANGE THEM THE WAY YOU WANT IT OF FIND THEM AS THEY ARE RECORD / DRAW THEM / PAINT THEM.
I ASK KAPUTNIK
when do you use this PARTICULAR WORD STILL LIFE IN YOUR LANGUAGE. Go back to that place so you have an answer ? I think you'll be wise enough to not to go anywhere else or GOOGLE TO FIND YOUR ANSWER.

If you have not done any art and heard this before the above all arguments come behind you.

Sorry, I must have misunderstood your question "Do anyone know what is the translation in French?"

[Cyril]

In French they add s or Es to make plural. It is not the answer.

But here the question is what is Still life?
It is a concept of art pre arranged or visualised as something find in the nature and record it.

Can you do it with living people or animal. OF COURSE ARRANGE THEM THE WAY YOU WANT IT OF FIND THEM AS THEY ARE RECORD / DRAW THEM / PAINT THEM.
I ASK KAPUTNIK
when do you use this PARTICULAR WORD STILL LIFE IN YOUR LANGUAGE. Go back to that place so you have an answer ? I think you'll be wise enough to not to go anywhere else or GOOGLE TO FIND YOUR ANSWER.

If you have not done any art and heard this before the above all arguments come behind you.

Sorry, I must have misunderstood your question "Do anyone know what is the translation in French?"

Oh No Not at all .. (I speak French ).. It's. me, I apologise for my writing style.

I was trying to come to the point to open up the vocabulary we use . They are moreover have more depth than the real translation. That is what we are facing here.

[BayesianPrior]

In French they add s or Es to make plural. It is not the answer.

But here the question is what is Still life?
It is a concept of art pre arranged or visualised as something find in the nature and record it.

Can you do it with living people or animal. OF COURSE ARRANGE THEM THE WAY YOU WANT IT OF FIND THEM AS THEY ARE RECORD / DRAW THEM / PAINT THEM.
I ASK KAPUTNIK
when do you use this PARTICULAR WORD STILL LIFE IN YOUR LANGUAGE. Go back to that place so you have an answer ? I think you'll be wise enough to not to go anywhere else or GOOGLE TO FIND YOUR ANSWER.

If you have not done any art and heard this before the above all arguments come behind you.

Sorry, I must have misunderstood your question "Do anyone know what is the translation in French?"

Oh No Not at all .. (I speak French ).. It's. me, I apologise for my writing style.

I was trying to come to the point to open up the vocabulary we use . They are moreover have more depth than the real translation. That is what we are facing here.

Ah I understand now. And I agree with you; it is more interesting to explore the concept of 'still life' than to debate grammatical rules (irrespective of how comforting I find those rules to be).

So my question is now about the French term "nature morte". En français, il me semble que le mot <nature> comprend plusieurs sens. Nous avons la concepte qui comprend la flore et la faune sauvage - en autre mots les lieux non-urbanisés. Mais nous avons aussi <nature> qui décrit un identité ou bien un esprit. Par example, la nature d'un mot (nom, article, conjonction, etc.) qui soit different de sa fonction (sujet, COD, COI, etc.). Lorsqu'on contemple un tableau de <nature morte>, est-ce que la naturalisme est absent, ou bien est-ce que la nature des objects a été éteinte?