The plural of "moose" is ...

[Ronald Butters]

*They were hunting frog.
*They were hunting cow.
*They were hunting mammal.

I think that, however,

"They were hunting duck" is OK.

The exception is just that "hunting" allows  the deletion of the plural morpheme iff the intended meaning is something like 'sport hunting' or 'game hunting' (i.e., with the object of killing creatures of the type named) and the object names a specific kind of game. This may also include recognized artificial 'game' such as skeet (?_.

The rule also works for "shooting," and maybe others ( "kill," etc.)

They were out shooting rabbit.
?They set out to out to kill rabbit.

Note that one can also say

"They were hunting rabbits," but this is somewhat ambiguous between 'sport hunting' and 'looking for missing rabbits' or 'seeking rabbits to purchase, etc.'

One cannot say, of a rabbitr-venerating cult, "They were hunting rabbit to worship'


Frogs

On Aug 19, 2010, at 10:21 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> "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
>> -----------------------
>> 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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>
>
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