Language Liberalism Freethought Birds
Verbing Weirds Language only if you're expecting it to work in a simple way. This is a special case of the more general truth that Language Weirds.
Only when a republic's life is in danger should a man uphold his government when it is in the wrong. There is no other time.
The church says Earth is flat; but I have seen its shadow on the moon, and I have more confidence in a shadow than the church.
If we can't find Heaven, there are always bluejays.
I did some Googling around and it seems that, unlike the Elks, the Moose haven't regularized their name. That is, while "the Elks held (a picnic / a Show Off Your Doggie Show / a blood drive / their annual soccer shoot out)", there are no hits for "the Mooses held". Ditto on "the Elks sold" and "the Mooses sold" (once you weed out the hits for people named Moose and vehicles called the Moose).
Labels: language
I used to teach Russian and Ukrainian, and some basic English, to civil servants. Now I teach Russian at a local continued-learning institute. I dabble in Gaelic and Welsh. I'm am amateur photographer and I love birding (in a small way). I'm a Progressive, and a Freethinker, and I know Evolution is a fact - that's FCD, Friend of Charles Darwin (look down the sidebar). I read a lot, and follow women's college basketball. Also I love astronomy, though I'm a rank amateur at it. Most of all, I like living in the reality-based community...
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3 Comments:
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At 2:56 PM, August 02, 2012
Kathie had this to say...
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At 3:33 PM, August 02, 2012
The Ridger, FCD had this to say...
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At 5:27 PM, August 02, 2012
Kathie had this to say...
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<-- Older Post ^ Home Newer Post -->"Moose" can be plural as well as singular. Ditto for "sheep," "deer," "fish," "caribou"/"reindeer" -- heck, even "elk"! I shall defer to your superior linguistic training, that you might expound further on such collective (defective?) nouns?
My point was that when such a noun - or any irregular noun - ceases to refer to its primary referent, it usually becomes regular. Hence, "the elk are moving down from the ranges" but "the Elks are holding an auction", just as "the maples leaves are falling from the trees" but "the Maple Leafs are falling in the standings", or "the marlin are running" but "the Marlins are winning".
"Moose" hasn't become "Mooses", as "the Timberwolves" haven't become "the Timberwolfs", and as computer mice aren't computer mouses. Occasionally an irregular paradigm is just too strong.
Don't you mean, "The Make Believes are falling in the standings"? LOL!
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