"Soldier"

[Bill Palmer]

There are many alternatives e.g.,"military members" "personnel", "members of
the armed forces", etc. but he chose "soldiers", which is inaccurate.

Bill Palmer


----- Original Message -----
From: "Neal Whitman" <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 11:57 AM
Subject: Re: "Soldier"


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: "Soldier"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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