The plural of "moose" is ...

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Ducks" may be an inexplicable exception, but "bird" is perhaps too generic.

So maybe there's a subconscious category of "insect and duck," perhaps
peculiar to English, that shapes our thoughts.


JL


On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 9:22 AM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: The plural of "moose" is ...
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "They were hunting quail."
>
> ?"They were hunting duck."
>
> *"They were hunting bird."
>
> --Charlie
>
> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Joel
> S. Berson [Berson at ATT.NET]
> Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2010 8:19 AM
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 8/18/2010 08:50 PM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >But I thought we knew that. I mean the correct plural of "moose."
> >
> >But if that's news, did you know that the plural of any animal is the
> >singular if you're hunting it/them?
> >
> >"Whatcha huntin', Clem?"
> >"Aardvark. En yew?"
> >"Tuatara. Them's mighty fine eatin'."
> >
> >The pattern might not work for bugs though.
>
> Or mouses?  Do we say "My cat is hunting mouse in the
> house"?  Perhaps it's only the reputable, mountable, big-game animals
> hunted by humans that are singular when hunted?  But what do they say
> about hunting squirrel?  Is it (are they) reputable and mountable?
>
>  Joel
>
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