Corporate linguistics

[wshaffer]

A trend I've noticed with some amusement at my place of employment is the use of "feedback" as a countable rather than uncountable noun. For example, "Let's collect all the customer feedbacks into a single document."

Have other people heard this, or is this idiosyncratic to my place of employment?

Comments

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

People do this with "learning" and it sets my teeth on edge.

I don't notice "feedbacks" much but a search through my Tintri email turned up 48 examples, starting in 2010.

I feel like this is probably an "internationalization" effect where non-native speakers don't internalize all the special case nouns. But we wouldn't notice "deer" or "mouse" because those don't appear in technical communication as often. :)

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've heard "learnings" a lot. That's even more irritating that "feedbacks" somehow - I think because it feels jargony, where "feedbacks" just looks like a straightforward pluralization error.

I think you're right about where it comes from - I first noticed this kind of pluralization error years ago when a non-native English speaker asked me to explain why "I cooked some eggs" was correct and "I cooked some eggplants" wasn't.

[azurelunatic]

Don't get me started on "asks".

[wshaffer.livejournal.com]

"Asks" occupies its own category of special.