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I would normally say "a pack of dogs", but perhaps you're thinking of
some other term(s). "A snarl of dogs" or "a skulk of dogs" would work
in much of rural Mexico and some other places I've been, but not so
well in the States, where dogs are (typically) pampered pets. The point
of the game is to come up with a collective term that expresses some
highly characteristic but not overly obvious (and thus in the best
cases delightfully surprising) aspect of the designatum (e.g. the
reference to kingly arrogance in "a pride of lions"). The "felony" case
alludes to the independence if not downright insubordination and
lawlessness of cats, while simultaneously punning on "feline".<br>
<br>
The book (_An Exaltation of Larks_) has a lot of other modern coinages
which are good fun. Two that come to mind are "a rash of
dermatologists" and "a lot of realtors" which are amusing in the way
they take common collectives ("rash" and "lot") and invest them with
unexpected but perfectly obvious meanings, punning, in effect, on
previously established (and perhaps more "literal") meanings. There's a
story, doubtless apocryphal, about three Oxford dons capping each
others' reference to a group of women of "smirky reputation" (--that
was an inadvertent coinage of a preacher friend of mine--) with clever
collectives. "A jam of tarts", mutters the first, to which the second,
an English lit. tutor, replies, "No, an essay of Trollope's", and the
third, a musician, rejoins, "Rather, a flourish of strumpets". (I'm
sure I have not quoted it precisely, but you get the idea.) The first
two, though entertaining as puns, are not as good as the third, because
they are not particularly enlightening about the nature of the
referents.<br>
<br>
--David Tuggy<br>
<br>
Mike Maxwell wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid4284DD1C.50002@ldc.upenn.edu" type="cite"><tt>
David Tuggy wrote:<br>
> ...a game played by some people to invent new ones. One of my <br>
> favorites (from Ron Langacker) is "a felony of cats"...<br>
<br>
There is a similar term for dogs, which is more or less canonical.<br>
-- <br>
Mike Maxwell<br>
Linguistic Data Consortium<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:maxwell@ldc.upenn.edu">maxwell@ldc.upenn.edu</a><br>
</tt>
</blockquote>
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