In linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where "objects" can be people, animals, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. For example, in the phrase "a pride of lions", pride is a collective noun. A case of disputed English grammar arises when there is disagreement about whether a given construction constitutes correct English. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... In English, verbs are conjugated for tense, aspect, mood, and voice, and in some cases to agree with their subjects in person and number. ... English has a large number of irregular verbs. ... In the English language, a modal auxiliary verb is an auxiliary verb (or helping verb) that can modify the grammatical mood (or mode) of a verb. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... The English language once had an extensive declension system similar to modern German or Icelandic. ... The English personal pronouns are classified as follows: First person refers to the speaker(s). ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... A compound is a word composed of more than one free morphemes. ... An honorific is something that is attached to the name but is not normally used elsewhere, e. ... This article is focused mainly on usage of English relative clauses. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. ...

Most collective nouns encountered in everyday speech (such as "group") are mundane and are not specific to one kind of constituent object (for example, the uses "group of people", "group of dogs", and "group of ideas" are all correct uses). Others, especially words belonging to the large subset of collective nouns known as terms of venery (words for groups of animals), are specific to one kind of constituent object (for example, "pride" as a term of venery refers only to lions—not to dogs, llamas, or any other animals). (Terms of venery are further discussed in a subsequent section.)

Metonymic merging of grammatical number

Two good examples of collective nouns are "team" and "government", which are both words referring to groups of (usually) people. Both "team" and "government" are count nouns. (Consider: "one team", "two teams", "most teams"; "one government", "two governments", "many governments"). However, confusion often stems from the fact that plural verb forms can often be used with the singular forms of these count nouns (for example: "The team have finished the project"); and, conversely, singular verb forms can often be used with nouns ending in "-s" that were once considered plural (for example: "Physics is my favorite academic subject"). A count noun is a noun which is itself counted, or the units which are used to count it. ...

This apparent "number mismatch" is actually a quite natural and logical feature of human language, and its mechanism is a subtle metonymic shift in the thoughts underlying the words. A good example of such a metonymic shift in the singular-to-plural direction is the following sentence: "The team have finished the project." In that sentence, the underlying thought is of the individual members of the team working together to finish the project. Their accomplishment is collective, and the emphasis is not on their individual identities, yet they are at the same time still discrete individuals; the word choice "team have" manages to convey both their collective and discrete identities simultaneously. A good example of such a metonymic shift in the plural-to-singular direction is the following sentence: "Mathematics is my favorite academic subject." The word "mathematics" may have originally been plural in concept, referring to mathematic endeavors, but metonymic shift—that is, the shift in concept from "the endeavors" to "the whole set of endeavors"—produced the usage of "mathematics" as a singular entity taking singular verb forms. (A true mass-noun sense of "mathematics" followed naturally.) In rhetoric, metonymy (from Greek beyond/changed and , a suffix used to name figures of speech from name (OED)) (IPA: ) is the substitution of one word for another with which it is associated. ... It has been suggested that Count noun be merged into this article or section. ...

In British English, it is generally accepted that collective nouns can take either singular or plural verb forms depending on the context and the metonymic shift that it implies. For example, "the team is in the dressing room" refers to the team as an ensemble, whilst "the team are fighting amongst themselves" refers to the team as individuals. Diagram showing the geographical locations of selected languages and dialects of the British Isles. ...

In American English, there is an epistemologic tendency to believe that the grammatical number mismatch makes such metonymic usage "wrong". Thus, collective nouns are almost always forced to take singular verb forms. In cases where a metonymic shift would be otherwise revealed nearby, the whole sentence may be recast to avoid the metonymy. (For example, "the team are fighting amongst themselves" may become "the team members are fighting among themselves" or "the team is fighting [full stop]".) See Differences between American and British English -Singular and plural for nouns. English language spread in the United States. ... This article outlines the differences between American English, the form of the English language spoken in the United States, and British English, or the British-based form of English spoken in most Commonwealth countries (sometimes therefore called Commonwealth English and occasionally International English). ...

Confounding of collective noun and mass noun

There is often confusion about, and confounding of, the two different concepts of collective noun and mass noun. Generally, collective nouns are not mass (non-count) nouns, but rather are a special subset of count nouns. However, the term "collective noun" is often used to mean "mass noun" (even in some dictionaries), because users confound two different kinds of verb number invariability: (a) that seen with mass nouns such as "water" or "furniture", with which only singular verb forms are used because the constituent matter is grammatically nondiscrete (although it may ["water"] or may not ["furniture"] be etically nondiscrete); and (b) that seen with collective nouns, which is the result of the metonymical shift, discussed earlier, between the group and its (both grammatically and etically) discrete constituents. It has been suggested that Count noun be merged into this article or section. ... A count noun is a noun which is itself counted, or the units which are used to count it. ... Emic and etic are terms used by some in the social sciences and the behavioral sciences to refer to two different kinds of data concerning human behavior. ...

Some words, including "mathematics" and "physics", have developed true mass-noun senses despite having grown from count-noun roots.

Terms of venery (words for groups of animals)

The tradition of using collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals stems from an English hunting tradition, dating back to at least the 15th century, in which poetic names were given to specific kinds of prey ("venery" means the hunting of animals). For this reason, there are many collective nouns that refer to animals and many of these original collective nouns are archaic: a "harras of horses" seems to have been used little since the 1400s. Some alternatives for collective nouns can be clearly traced to the evolution of pronunciation in different areas (hence a "parcel of hogs" and a "passel of hogs"). The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Events and Trends Categories: 1400s ... Look up pronunciation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Sometimes a term of venery will apply to a group only in a certain context. "Herd" can properly refer to a group of wild horses, but not to a group of domestic horses. A "paddling of ducks" only refers to ducks on water.

Interest in constituent-object-specific collective nouns has always remained high, and the coining of candidate collective nouns has been a pastime (usually humorous) of many writers ever since, including for non-animal nouns, such as professions - e.g. a 'sequitur of logicians'. Some such coinings have caught on to the extent that they have achieved an entry in a respected dictionary; the vast majority have not, though many such collective nouns have been circulated on websites such as Wikipedia and in popular discourse for humorous reasons or as trivia. In at least two cases (an "abomination of monks" and "a court of kangaroos") some authoritative resources allege them to be accurate, but research has proved these to be spurious as well. A neologism (from Greek νεολογισμός νέος [neos] = new; λόγος [logos] = word) is a word, term, or phrase which has been recently created (coined) — often to apply to new concepts, to synthesize pre-existing concepts, or to make older terminology sound more contemporary. ... Wikipedia is a multi-lingual, Web-based free content encyclopedia project. ... Look up Trivia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

See also

Linguistics

• Mass noun
• Measure words
• Noun classes

It has been suggested that Count noun be merged into this article or section. ... Measure words, in linguistics, are words (or morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate the count of nouns. ... In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. ...

English language

• Collective nouns sorted by subject
• Collective nouns sorted by collective term
• Collective nouns for people
• Collective nouns for mammals, non-human
• Collective nouns for birds
• Collective nouns for reptiles and amphibians
• Collective nouns for fish, invertebrates and plants
• Collective nouns for objects and concepts
• List of animal names

Collective noun List of collective nouns List of collective nouns by subject A-H List of collective nouns by subject I-Z Notes: The phrase An abomination of monks is frequently cited as a legitimate collective noun for monks. ... Collective noun List of collective nouns List of collective nouns by collective term A-K List of collective nouns by collective term L-Z Notes: The phrase An abomination of monks is frequently cited as a legitimate collective noun for monks. ... This is a list of collective nouns for people. ... The factual accuracy of this article is disputed. ... See also Collective noun. ... Also see Collective noun Categories: Lists of collective nouns ... Also see Collective noun The square root signs, √, below signify a widespread usage in both North American English and Commonwealth English. ... Also see Collective noun Categories: Lists of collective nouns ... It has been suggested that List of animal adjectives be merged into this article or section. ...

Bibliography

• Lipton, James. An Exaltation of Larks. Penguin. 1991. Hardcover Paperback

External links

The collection of genuine and spurious English collective nouns has proved an interesting diversion for many website writers:

• The Collective Noun Page
• Collection of Collective Nouns
• Fun With Words: Collective Nouns
• Collective Nouns List