Noncollective "troops" once again

[Neal Whitman]

Apologies for double posting; this is a correction of the previous message, which had the wrong link for Arnold's LL post.

In April 2003, there was a thread on 'troop' as a noncollective noun, beginning at http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0304B&L=ADS-L&P=R4698&m=19980).

In Nov. 2006, another thread on noncollective 'troop' came up here, beginning at http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0611A&L=ADS-L&P=R2293&m=62349.

In Dec. 2006, Arnold blogged on the subject at Language Log: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003879.html.

Now, for those who just can't get enough on the subject, is my Veteran's Day column at Visual Thesaurus: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/2062/. 

...and a followup at Literal-Minded, where I put the stuff that didn't make it in to the column:
http://literalminded.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/a-troop-is-two-boots-on-the-ground/.

Best,
Neal

Neal Whitman
Email: nwhitman at ameritech.net
Blog: http://literalminded.wordpress.com
Twitter: @literalminded

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