The plural of "moose" is ...

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:21 AM -0400 8/19/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>"Ducks" may be an inexplicable exception, but "bird" is perhaps too generic.

Maybe.  Of course "game" is pretty generic, but then it's *only*
generic (and mass, as with "furniture" vs. "chair" or "silverware"
vs. "spoon"), while "bird" would have to do duty for both.

I was going to say "hunting duck" sounded OK to me, but given my
outsider status for the relevant culture, I figured I'd better do a
quick empirical check.

"Hunting ducks in": about 218,000 estimated hits
"Hunting duck in":  50 actual hits
(a good number are irrelevant, of course, but Charlie's contrast
comes out pretty clearly)

(Of course I didn't want to check "hunting duck(s)" per se, because
that would have brought in all those hits relating to ducks who hunt.)

LH

>
>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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>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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