2021-09-10
今天被通知参加教师节表彰大会。不是自己被表彰，是被要求感受别人被表彰。但我车限行，没有机会前去。
突然想起来这教师节的英语表达会有几种表示，到底哪种正确呢？
我:
I can not sure which one is correct:
- happy teacher's day
- happy teachers' day
- happy teachers day.
S告诉我说：
Either Happy Teachers Day or Happy Teachers’ Day.
但是：Happy Teacher’s Day是错误的用法。
Happy Teacher’s Day would be wrong because it would imply the day only honors one teacher.
但我突然想起来这个月还有个labor day,
but why not happy labors day？ just use happy labor day?
S：
Labor is not a person, but an abstract object. So we don’t use possession on it. Therefore, we can say “Happy Children’s Day” (because children are not abstract), but “Happy Independence Day” because independence is an abstract idea, so it cannot “own” the day.
If we called it “Laborers’ Day,” that would work because a laborer is a person.
Or “Motherhood Day” instead of “Mothers’ Day.”
But even concrete objects we tend not to use the possessive unless it is a person. So, for example, one donut company declared a certain day “National Donut Day” as a promotional, not “National Donuts’ Day.”
这个问题让我想起来之前和学生纠结的一个概念：在推荐系统里会有一个 用户兴趣的概念。到底是user's interest, 还是user interest? 现在明确了，user作为一类别，而非特指某一角色，后者即user interest是对的。
不过，还有问题，就是马丁的纪念日，用的是：Martin Luther King Jr. Day
there is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Martin Luther King Jr. is a person, but why not use Martin Luther King's Day?
这是个具体的人，为什么不用Martin Luther King's Day？
S：
Honestly, because people find it hard to make JR possessive. Most people just call it MLK Day.
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