Re: Missing Singulars

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Andrew Jarrette" <anjarrette@...> wrote:

>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski <gpiotr@> wrote:
> >
> > On 2008-12-19 18:00, Andrew Jarrette wrote:
> >
> > > Yes, <these/those police> is probably acceptable, although I seldom
> > > hear anything other than <the police>. More likely one would say
> > > <these/those policemen> (or <police officers>, especially if women
> > > are included). But I disagree: I don't think one can say "ten

police"

> > > or "I counted seven police", at least I wouldn't say those. One
> > > would more likely say "ten police officers" or "I counted seven
> > > policemen". So I think <police> behaves more like <cattle> (takes a
> > > plural verb) except it's usually prefixed by <the> and whereas one
> > > might say <some cattle> one wouldn't say <some police>.
> >
> > Constructions like <two police arrived at the scene> or <twelve
> soldiers
> > and four police were injured> can be found quite often especially
> > (though not exclusively) in British and Australian/NZ English; at

least

> > one can google up a fair number of examples. They may be

journalese for

> > <police officers>. Here's a typical example:
> >
> > "Two police arrived to arrest Mrs Cairncross at the senior school
> > assembly and took her away in a police car with blue lights flashing."
> >
> > http://www.oldws.org.uk/In_Touch_Spring_2007.pdf
> >
> > The accompanying photo shows two police officers of different sex.
> >
> > Piotr
> >
>
> I think it's journalese short forms. I know I wouldn't say "two
> police arrested me" or "he was arrested by two police". I would
> always add <-men> or <officers>.
>
> Andrew
>

On second thought, I think one can encounter "There were police on the
scene" fairly often. But even that I think is more common in
journalism than in speech. I think in speech people would more likely
say "The police were there". I don't know about what Rick is saying
viz. "a police", I can't remember hearing this.

Andrew