Salary/salaries

[Dibya]

Dear all,
1)he gets a high salary...
2)they get high salaries'....
BUT
3)I got salary today.(I came accros this sentense)
These are three different sentences...If 'salary' is a count noun then why in the 3rd sentence 'salary' is not preceded by an article.. I will be very grateful to you all if you kindly clear my confusion thank you a lot in advance..

 

[Franco-filly]

3. Is not correct. We would say "I got my salary today."

 

[Uncle Jack]

(3) seems wrong. Where did you see it? What is the context?

 

[Dibya]

I saw it over the Internet...and are the 1st and 2nd sentenses correct?..can I say they get a high salary in lue of saying they get high salaries? Is the English language is all about sound? I used to have a teacher who would always keep saying that the English language is mellifluous...Is it so?

 

[Uncle Jack]

The first two sentences are fine. You can say "they get a high salary" or "they get high salaries"; the first version lumps the two people together, although they don't necessarily get the same salary, and the second version is more common. Probably a lot more common.

I don't know about the English language being all about sound, let alone mellifluous. I think there are far more rhythmical or musical languages. There are probably some expressions we avoid because they sound awkward, but there is usually some other reason as well, and I doubt there are more than one or two speakers of English who would conscientiously choose "they get a high salary" over "they get high salaries" because it has a better rhythm.

 

[Dibya]

Thanks a lot for taking the trouble to give me a huge reply.........you must be very tired... Best regards...