"Soldier"

[Neal Whitman]

Maybe he wanted to avoid the confusion of using 'troop' as a noncollective
count noun (a topic previously covered here, on Language Log, and on
Literal-Minded).

Neal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Palmer" <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 11:14 AM
Subject: "Soldier"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bill Palmer <w_a_palmer at BELLSOUTH.NET>
> Subject:      "Soldier"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> CBS news correspondent Bill Plante reported today that 4,250 "soldiers" =
> had died in Iraq, although many of them were US Marines along with a few =
> sailors & airmen.
>
> I read an article recently mentioning the 17 "soldiers" who had been =
> killed in the USS Cole bombing.
>
> There are many, many other recent examples.
>
> Is "soldier" now taken to mean any member of the armed forces, even =
> those who man ships? Or are we now so far into the all-volunteer force =
> (>35 years) that none of our journalists have any military experience =
> and don't know the proper terminology any more?
>
> Bill Palmer
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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