Using the plural form of proprietary for software
I came across this sentence in an article.
- There is a balance of proprietary and open sources in the market.
Should it be either of the following instead?
There is a balance of proprietaries and open sources in the market.
There is a balance of proprietary and open source software in the market.
Strictly in terms of the syntax of the original sentence, there is a possible way of parsing it that would result in something nonsensical:
There is a balance of proprietary and open sources in the market.
That parsing would result in something that doesn't make sense because the adjective cannot stand on its own without a noun to modify.
So, in that sense, you are correct that it might appear odd—but only if somebody parsed it in that way, which is unusual.
Typically, it would be parsed in one of these ways:
- There is a balance of proprietary sources and open sources in the market.
- There is a balance of proprietary and open sources in the market.
Most people would have no problem assuming this interpretation. Everything being equal, we mentally adjust anything ambiguous between the understandable and the nonsensical in favour of the understandable.
But note that both of your rephrased versions also suffer from possible parsing issues:
- There is a balance of proprietaries and open sources in the market.
- There is a balance of proprietary and open source software in the market.
Further, the first version, even if it is parsed as you want, results in proprietaries sources, which is a phrase that doesn't make sense.
The addition of software in the last version does indeed make it far less likely to be incorrectly parsed, but it may also change the meaning of what's being communicated.
If you want a sentence that cannot be parsed incorrectly, even in the most unlikely of interpretations, then you need to rephrase it.
To avoid the possibility of incorrect parsing in any way at all, you would have to get very explicit:
In the market there is a balance of (1) proprietary sources and (2) open sources.
In the market the following are in balance: proprietary sources and open sources.
However, at a certain point you have to stop overanalyzing, and assume that most people will not have a problem with idiomatic phrasing.