Collective nouns

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:49 PM -0400 9/17/10, Bill Palmer wrote:
>The NC State Wolfpack football team just won their third game last night.
>
>A headline on the WRAL-TV website asserts:
>
>"Despite 3-0 start, Pack have work to do".
>
>This just sounds wrong, even if a similar usage might be OK in the
>UK, as I believe one subscriber mentioned some time ago.
>
Not to me, although it might have 30 years ago.  But with e.g. "the
Heat" and "the Jazz" joining the Celtics, Knicks, Lakers, etc. as
team nicknames (in the NBA, but there are parallels in other
leagues--"the Fire", "the Storm", "the Crew", "the Revolution",...),
there are more chances for these collective plurals.  I think both
forms are used:  "the (Miami) Heat have/has a good chance at the
championship" are both quite natural, with a quick google search
indicating a preference for the plural agreement.  "(the) Pack" is of
course headlinese for "the Packers", which would obligatorily govern
the plural, so that might make "the Pack have" rather than
"has...work to do" even more likely.

LH

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