I noted the following extract from an article on page A5 of The Brunei Times of 7 November 2010, which suggests that research is nowadays changing and becoming a count noun.
But what about in the English found in other countries, such as the UK or USA?
Nowadays, it is becoming increasingly straightforward to check such things. The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) is available on-line (here), offering immediate searches on 410 million words of contemporary American English.
A search on "researches" is not much good, as the word can be used as a third-person singular present-tense verb. So I searched instead for "my researches". And I found 13 instances of this sequence:
- and my researches and forecasts will allow us to ...
- that I include my researches on micro-adaptations ...
- in all my researches, I find none prior to them ...
- push my researches up to the very spring-head ...
- During my researches in the Leviathanic histories, ...
- those who helped me in my researches in Lebanon ...
- I drew my own conclusions from my researches.
- from my researches I find it doubtful that ...
- after I had finished my researches on the Marquis de ...
- My researches did reveal that John H. Fouch was ...
- I also noted in my researches into such dubious matters ...
- is in the nature of my researches and in the nature of ...
- From my researches, which included an interview with
It seems, therefore, that research is nowadays being used quite widely as a count noun. Maybe I should no longer correct the writing of my students.
