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accommodations limited

Japutra

Senior Member
Russian - Ukraine
Can you please explain what Goodwin implies here?

"no decent hotels" maybe ?


What sort of a town is this--Coralio, I think they call it?"

"Not much of a town," said Goodwin, smiling. "A banana town, as they run. Grass huts, ' dobes, five or six two-story houses, accommodations limited, population half-breed Spanish and Indian, Caribs and blackamoors. No sidewalks to speak of, no amusements. Rather unmoral. That's an offhand sketch, of course."

From Cabbages and Kings by O Henry (part 4 : Caught)

See full text here:

http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/henry/henry.html
It should be accommodation's limited, which might help your understanding.
I agree with Teddy. In AE accomodation is often a countable noun, particularly when referring to lodging. The entire quote is in an abbreviated, telegraphic style that leaves out most of the articles, for instance. The word that is omitted from "accomodations limited" is are.
I think that it's meant to figuratively suggest, as a reference to modest hotels, that conditions will be quite rustic or simple.
Exactly.

The character, Goodwin, thought about the "poorly furnished room" when he first entered and saw the character to whom he was later speaking.

Very modest lodging.
What do you mean by 'should', Baker? Has Japutra transcribed the text wrongly?

I don't use accommodation as a countable noun, but many people do. http://www.bu.edu/cpr/reasaccom/

I mean that, in BE at least, I've never heard accommodation used as a countable noun, and the fact that it was accommodations limited instead of limited accommodation(s) seemed strange. For me, the logical explanation would be that there was a missing apostrophe - either incorrectly copied by Japutra (although I now know this not to be the case) or incorrectly written on the site.
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Accommodation is an uncountable noun in BrE. It can be countable in AmE. This is fairly well established. 'Limited' here then means 'lacking in quality' rather than 'lacking in availability' then?
I read (I'm using past tense) "limited" as meaning "low availability" rather than "low-quality". Obviously each reader is free to add their own interpretation when reading a work of fiction.

I understand baker's point, but I did not find the use of "accommodations" as a plural word confusing, given the American context (and the structure of the adjacent phrases), nor did I consider there had been a typographical error.
When I read that, I interpreted "limited" to be describing both the quantity and quality of the accommodations, which makes sense in this context.
Thank you, guys!
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