| A count noun may designate a group or collection rather than a single instance. This kind of noun is a collective noun. |
| (1) | I met some youths in the yard. | [separate instances] | |
| (2) | The youth of today are rebellious. | [collective, plural verb] | |
| (3) | The youth of today is rebellious. | [collective, singular verb] |
| A language game popular during the last century involved choosing a particularly apt noun to use as a collective, one appropriate to some given species or special group of individuals. This often results in rather creative expressions some of which have become generally known and accepted into the language. This kind of phrase is a remarkable instance of grammatical agreement on species, [nSpecies]. |
| (4) | An exaltation of lark | |
| (5) | A crash of rhinoceros | |
| (6) | A medley of singers | |
| (7) | A percussion of drums |
Plural collectives.Notice that in (6), and (7) of the last paragraph the [nSpecies] feature is not generated on the correlative holonym. Singers and drums are plural count nouns, so there is little in their meaning to make us think of them as kinds of some larger class, say, musician or instrument. Any feeling that these nouns name a species may well be due to their appearance in this construction. The semantic contribution of the first noun, which is now a collective, has, in a sense, a partly neutralized version of its usual content. If there is occasion to view these names of special groups as collectives, the grammarian may want to call them plural collectives. It is a rather different construction, when the first noun specifically quantifies the second noun, as an instance. We handle this in a later paragraph — §15-4. |
Holonymic collectives.The count nouns most often classed as collectives appear as a component of the partitive construction. This construction consists of two nouns joined by of. The first noun, the meronym, refers to a part. The noun following the of, the holonym, refers to the whole. The holonymic collective may actually appear as the meronym (1), but in this case it refers to exactly the same thing as the holonym. |
| (1) | a. | A family of three members | |
| b. | A crew of eight rowers | ||
| c. | An orchestra of five sections | ||
| (2) | a. | Two members of a family | |
| b. | Two rowers of a matched crew | ||
| c. | A section of an orchestra (are playing too loud.) |
| In the meronymic position its holonym is usually a plural count noun (1), but it may also be another holonymic collective, as in (2c). In (2) the holonymic collective is in its more natural position as the holonym while the associated meronym might be either a singular or a plural count noun. |
Partitive collectives.The examples in (4) and (5) of the introductory paragraph of §11-5 give partitive collectives in the meronymic position of the partitive construction. In those examples we find other collectives in the holonymic position that are characteristically associated with these collectives. Some holonymic collectives, nouns like lark and rhinoceros, are singular in form so that it is easy to consider them as basically non-count. Suppose we try to make such nouns the meronym in a partitive-like construction by giving them the interpretation of a singular count noun. |
| (1) | One lark of an exaltation in flight | |
| (2) | One rhinoceros of an attacking crash |
| In these examples we make them appear with a number, so that the partitive is actually an instance of the quantifier construction, i.e., we may describe (1) and (2) as the products of an ellipsis from (3) and (4) respectively. |
| (3) | One lark of an exaltation (of lark) in flight | |
| (4) | One rhinoceros of an attacking crash (of rhinoceros) |
Plural of holonymic collectives.We normally interpret the plural form of the holonymic collective to have a meaning quite different from the singular, which is the form used in a hunting or other food context (see below §11-6). Usually the noun no longer refers to the species, but to a specimen in the context of a circus, zoo, or possibly some other garden. The examples in (4) and (5) are count or mass nouns and do not seem to accept a contrast between the food and garden state. |
| (1) | a. | A pride of lion; hunting for lion; six lion; eating lion | (singular form of holonymic collective) | |
| b. | A lion; taming lions; twenty lions | (plural form of holonymic collective) | ||
| (2) | a. | A head of hair; styling hair | (singular form of holonymic collective) | |
| b. | A hair; counting hairs; twenty hairs | (plural form of holonymic collective) | ||
| (3) | a. | A pound of lamb; eating lamb | (singular form of holonymic collective) | |
| b. | A lamb; feeding lambs; twenty lambs | (plural form of holonymic collective) | ||
| (4) | a. | ?A helping of potato; ?eating mashed potato | (?singular form of count noun as species) | |
| b. | A potato; watering potatoes; twenty potatoes | (plural form of count noun) | ||
| (5) | a. | A helping of corn; eating mashed corn | (singular form of mass noun) | |
| b. | *A corn; *watering corns; *twenty corns | (*plural form mass noun) |
| There are at least two holonymic collectives whose singular (non-count, species) and plural (count, specimens) form are usually the same. With these the plural form is especially intended to refer to different species. |
| (6) | a. | A crowd of people; meeting people; twenty people | |
| b. | A proud people; the English people; two different peoples | ||
| (7) | a. | A herd of cattle; breeding cattle; six cattle | |
| b. | A pure-bred cattle; the Hereford cattle; two different cattles |
Mass holonymic collectives.Some mass nouns have come to be used in an implied partitive with the (plural) meronym elided. Absorbing its individualizing meaning the noun has become a mass holonymic collective. |
| (1) | An article of china, linen, silver, clothing is being shipped in. | ||
| a. | Expensive china are being shipped in. | ||
| b. | Fresh linen are being shipped in. | ||
| c. | Clean silver are being shipped in. | ||
| d. | Heavy clothing are being shipped in. | ||
Abstract holonymic collectives.Occasionally writers will find abstract nouns to refer to instances of a substance. These forms are [–Count, +Abstract] which now usually appear as [–Count,–Abstract], but often act like [+Count,+Plural], take a plural verb form, and could hence be termed an abstract holonymic collective. |
| (1) | The kindling are too wet. | (pieces of wood) | |
| (2) | Pottery of that period are rare. | (pieces of pottery) | |
| (3) | Royalty are visiting tonight. | (royal persons) | |
| (4) | My accommodation are adequate. | (rooms, British) |
