plural collective nouns

[Karstad-Schueler]

JOSEPH E. LAFERRIERE wrote:

> The "government" is not a plural word. It is singular. Period.

* that's a lot truer in American English than it is in British English,
where the government are visualized as a gaggle of MP's who make up a
majority of the House of Commons.

John McNeill wrote:

> I think the confusion that many English speaking people have with names
> of families and higher taxa that are plural is that what we are really
> wanting to say is:  "the family Asteraceae is ...." and so sometimes
> find "Asteraceae are ...." a little odd.

* that's fine if the Asteraceae (is/are) regarded as a collection of
species or genera, but if it is regatded as a monophyletic individual,
then it seems to me that the old Latin grammar has to be sacrificed to
the newer way of regarding taxa.

fred schueler.
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