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In linguistics, a collective noun is a collection of things taken as a whole. For example, in
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the phrase "a pride of lions", pride is a collective noun.
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Most collective nouns in everyday speech, such as "group", are mundane and are not specific
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to a kind of object. For example, the terms "group of people", "group of dogs", and "group
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of ideas" are all correct uses. Others, especially words belonging to the large subset of collective
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nouns known as terms of venery, are specific to one kind of constituent object. For example,
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"pride" as a term of venery refers to lions, but not to dogs or cows.
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Collective nouns should not be confused with mass nouns, or with the collective grammatical
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number.
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Derivational collectives Derivation accounts for many collective words.
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Because derivation is a slower and less productive word formation process than the more overtly
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syntactical morphological methods, there are fewer collectives formed this way. As with
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all derived words, derivational collectives often differ semantically from the original
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words, acquiring new connotations and even new denotations.
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The English endings -age and -ade often signify a collective. Sometimes the relationship is
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easily recognizable: baggage, drainage, blockade. However, even though the etymology is plain
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to see, the derived words take on quite a special meaning.
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German uses the prefix Ge- to create collectives. The root word often undergoes umlaut and suffixation
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as well as receiving the Ge- prefix. Nearly all nouns created in this way are of neuter
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gender. Examples include: das Gebirge, "group of mountains, mountain
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range", from der Berg, "mountain" das Gepäck, "luggage, baggage" from der Pack,
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"pack, bundle, pile" das Geflügel, "poultry, fowl" from late MHG
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gevlügel(e), under the influence of der Flügel, "wing", from MHG gevügel, from OHG gifugili
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= collective formation, from fogal, "bird" das Gefieder, "plumage" from die Feder, "feather"
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In Swedish one example is the different words for mosquitos in the collective form and in
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the individual form: mygga, plural: myggor
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mygg Metonymic merging of grammatical number
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Two good examples of collective nouns are "team" and "government", which are both words
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referring to groups of people. Both "team" and "government" are count nouns.. However,
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confusion often stems from the fact that plural verb forms are often used in British English
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with the singular forms of these count nouns. Conversely, in the English language as a whole,
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singular verb forms can often be used with nouns ending in "-s" that were once considered
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plural. This apparent "number mismatch" is actually a quite natural and logical feature
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of human language, and its mechanism is a subtle metonymic shift in the thoughts underlying
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the words. In British English, it is generally accepted
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that collective nouns can take either singular or plural verb forms depending on the context
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and the metonymic shift that it implies. For example, "the team is in the dressing room"
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refers to the team as an ensemble, while "the team are fighting among themselves" refers
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to the team as individuals. This is also British English practice with names of countries and
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cities in sports contexts; for example, "Germany have won the competition.", "Madrid have lost
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three consecutive matches.", etc. In American English, collective nouns almost invariably
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take singular verb forms. In cases where a metonymic shift would be otherwise revealed
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nearby, the whole sentence may be recast to avoid the metonymy. See Comparison of American
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and British English - Formal and notional agreement.
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A good example of such a metonymic shift in the singular-to-plural direction is the following
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sentence: "The team have finished the project." In that sentence, the underlying thought is
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of the individual members of the team working together to finish the project. Their accomplishment
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is collective, and the emphasis is not on their individual identities, yet they are
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at the same time still discrete individuals; the word choice "team have" manages to convey
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both their collective and discrete identities simultaneously. A good example of such a metonymic
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shift in the plural-to-singular direction is the following sentence: "Mathematics is
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my favorite academic subject." The word "mathematics" may have originally been plural in concept,
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referring to mathematic endeavors, but metonymic shift—that is, the shift in concept from
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"the endeavors" to "the whole set of endeavors"—produced the usage of "mathematics" as a singular entity
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taking singular verb forms. Nominally singular pronouns can be collective
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nouns taking plural verbs, according to the same rules that apply to other collective
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nouns. For example, it is correct British English or American English usage to say:
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"None are so fallible as those who are sure they're right." In this case, the plural verb
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is used because the context for "none" suggests more than one thing or person.
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Terms of venery
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The tradition of using "terms of venery" or "nouns of assembly"—collective nouns that
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are specific to certain kinds of animals—stems from an English hunting tradition of the Late
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Middle Ages. The fashion of a consciously developed hunting language came to England
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from France. It is marked by an extensive proliferation of specialist vocabulary, applying
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different names to the same feature in different animals. These elements can be shown to have
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already been part of French and English hunting terminology by the beginning of the 14th century.
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In the course of the 14th century, it became a courtly fashion to extend the vocabulary,
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and by the 15th century, this tendency had reached exaggerated proportions. The Venerie
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of Twiti distinguished three types of droppings of animals, and three different terms for
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herds of animals. Gaston Phoebus had five terms for droppings of animals, which were
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extended to seven in the Master of the Game. The focus on collective terms for groups of
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animals emerges in the later 15th century. Thus, a list of collective nouns in Egerton
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MS 1995, dated to c. 1452 under the heading of termis of venery &c. extends to 70 items,
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and the list in the Book of Saint Albans runs to 165 items, many of which, even though introduced
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by the compaynys of beestys and fowlys, do not relate to venery but to human groups and
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professions and are clearly humorous. The Book of Saint Albans became very popular
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during the 16th century and was reprinted frequently. Gervase Markham edited and commented
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on the list in his The Gentleman's Academic in 1595. The book's popularity had the effect
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of perpetuating many of these terms as part of the Standard English lexicon, even though
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they have long ceased to have any practical application. Even in their original context
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of medieval venery, the terms were of the nature of kennings, intended as a mark of
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erudition of the gentlemen able to use them correctly rather than for practical communication.
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The popularity of these terms in the early modern and modern period has resulted in the
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addition of numerous light-hearted, humorous or "facetious" collective nouns.
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See also Linguistics concepts
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Grammatical number Mass noun
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Measure words Plural
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Plurale tantum Synesis
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Lists List of collective nouns for all subjects
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List of animal names, including names for groups
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English language Wiktionary appendix of collective nouns
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Interdisciplinary Social unit
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References
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Further reading Hodgkin, John. Proper Terms: An attempt at
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a rational explanation of the meanings of the Collection of Phrases in "The Book of
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St Albans", 1486, entitled "The Compaynys of beestys and fowlys" and similar lists.,
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Transactions of the Philological Society 1907-1910 Part III, pp 1 – 187, Kegan, Paul, Trench
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& Trübner & Co, Ltd, London, 1909. Shulman, Alon. A Mess of Iguanas... A Whoop
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of Gorillas: An Amazement of Animal Facts. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-84614-255-0.
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Lipton, James. An Exaltation of Larks, or The "Veneral" Game. Penguin.; in 1993 it was
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republished in Penguin with The Ultimate Edition as part of the title with the ISBN 0-14-017096-0
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Hardcover Paperback PatrickGeorge. A filth of starlings. PatrickGeorge.
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ISBN 978-0-9562558-1-5. PatrickGeorge. A drove of bullocks. PatrickGeorge.
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ISBN 978-0-9562558-0-8.