plural collective nouns

[MANMEET SINGH]

On Thu, 29 Oct 1998, Thomas G. Lammers wrote:

> At 08:05 AM 10-29-98 -0800, Dick Jensen wrote:> >
> >    "Fagaceae is recognized as a taxon based on the following characters..."
> >    "Fagaceae are found in Asia, Europe, North America, South America..."

It is correct to say "Fagaceae are found in........" but when we talk
about Fagaceae assigned to a family rank it would be "the family Fagaceae
is found in........."
>.   I would never say, "The cacti is a
> group of succulents."

the statement is true because we are not talking about a cactus but cacti


>  Nor, for that matter, would I say, "The Jensens is
> our neighbors", when referring to the Jensen family as an unitary entity.

Again true but equally coorect is when we say "Jensen family is in our
neighbourhood".

> If we add, as Dick pointed out, "The family ..." to his first sentence,
> then, yes, a singular noun is required ... because "family" is now the
> subject of the sentence and "Fagaceae" a mere noun in apposition.

agreeing with this statement solves our problems. The taxonomic group (as
it is latinised) above the genus rank when referred as such are plural but
when assigned to a category the reference is singular. Thus "Winteraceae
are primitive angiosperms" and "Winteraceae is a primitive family of
Angiosperms" are both correct.


Dr. Gurcharan Singh
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Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Department of Botany
Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Khalsa College
University of Delhi
Delhi-110007, INDIA
ph: 91-011-7257469
Res: 932 Anand Kunj
Vikas Puri
New Delhi-110018
ph: 91-011-5531534
e-mail: singhm at giasdla.vsnl.net.in
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