Let's talk about measure words. What is a measure word? Well, it tells you what unit of measure you're using, such as a slice of bread, vs. a loaf of bread. In some languages, such as English, such measure words are often optional. For instance, did you see a sheep, or a herd of sheep? In other languages, a measure word is always required. Why are they relevant? Well, they're important when it comes to pluralizing words or counting things. Some objects are inherently countable, such as people. You can walk into a room and count them up, one at a time. Other words are not countable, such as water. You can't simply say 1 water, 2 water, .... Indeed, what would "1 water" be? For something so fluid and easily divisible, with no way to tell the whole from the parts, it's not ovious. Maybe a single atom perhaps? That hardly seems like a sane default measurment though. You can however add a measure word in front of water, and count the measures, such as 1 bottle of water.
Now, why would I bring up such a silly topic?
Quite simply put, I've noticed a certain lack of agreement on whether "code" is countable or not. Certainly lines of code are countable, but "lines" is a measure word. Generally, I've grown up believing "code" to be like "water", in that it is not countable. Perhaps because like water, an abstract concept like "thought" is not easily measured. Plus, if "code" is not given a measure word, what is it's default measure? Certainly in the case of "a sheep", there is no confusion as to the quantity of sheep when the measure word is omitted. (Here the "a" would stand for the numeral, and denote there is one unit of something). Note also that words with an optional measure word can be pluralized such as "1 coin"/"2 coins", (although, sometimes the plural is itself, like "sheep"). You don't however see "waters" written anywhere (which of course is completely different from "water's ...").
So, now that I've come to take language a little more seriously, and to think a little harder about what those rules we all tend to use actually are, I've come to wonder about this one. Is "code" countable?
I've also come to wonder about other languages, and what their rules are for measure words and countability. Perhaps the reason for this being, that the majority of people (but not all) that I see writing "codes" seem to speak English as a second language. (Admittedly, it's a little hard to tell in some cases).
So then my questions are:
1) Do you think "code" is countable?
2) Are you a native English speaker?
3) If you're not a native English speaker, what language do you speak, and what are the rules (according to your best guess at least) for measure words and countability in your language?
