From: Rick McCallister
Message: 62167
Date: 2008-12-19
> From: Andrew Jarrette <anjarrette@...>I notice that "police" is often used as a short form of "police officer" --the difference between the force and the officer oftens boils down to definite vs. indefinite article as in Spanish or as in slang the Po-po, vs. a Po-po
> Subject: Re: [tied] Missing Singulars
> To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Friday, December 19, 2008, 12:00 PM
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Piotr Gasiorowski
> <gpiotr@...> wrote:
> >
> > On 2008-12-19 09:13, Brian M. Scott wrote:
> >
> > > Unlike 'sand', 'milk', etc., it
> takes a plural verb: 'the
> > > cattle are in the barn'.
> >
> > It's a collective plural sensu stricto, the
> clearest example of one in
> > English. Many group nouns (<family, police,
> committee, audience, crew>
> > etc.) optionally behave in a similar way, especially
> in British
> English,
> > but their status is slightly different. For example,
> we say <these
> > cattle/people>, but never <these committee>.
> <These/those police>
> sounds
> > perfectly acceptable to me (I wonder how the native
> speakers of English
> > feel about it), but then <police> functions like
> a count plural rather
> > than a collective (it can be used with numerals, while
> <cattle> can't).
> >
> > Piotr
> >
>
> 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>.
>
> Andrew