[Ads-l] troops

[Christopher Philippo]

On Sep 18, 2016, at 9:58 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> I also am confused about ambiguity. The Syrian Army is AFAIK a formal army.
> Both troops and soldiers seem to be correct.

I didn’t write that soldiers wasn’t correct.  I am uncertain as to the reason for any confusion given that I had explicitly stated what the ambiguity was:

On Sep 18, 2016, at 8:03 AM, Christopher Philippo <toff at mac.com> wrote:
> sixty-two people (as seems to be the case) or sixty-two units of people

That “troops” may be used for both a number of people or a number of military subunits, and that both uses may be correct creates ambiguity - as stated repeatedly in the link I had shared in connection with my referring to the ambiguity, e.g.:

> In his Political Dictionary published last year, William Safire had this to say on the issue:
> Troops is a word in semantic trouble. In one sense, it means "soldiers"; does this exclude sailors and airmen (now grouped as "service personnel")? Troops means "a group of," but so does a troop; the extent of the number is fuzzy. ... A troop means both “one soldier” and "a group of soldiers," which is not what a word is supposed to do.
http://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/dictionary/a-troop-of-one/

The ADS thread mentioned in the visualthesaurus article: http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2003-April/031099.html

> The Associated Press stylebook — used by NPR and many other news organizations —says that when “troops” is used with a large number, it’s understood to mean individual soldiers. […]
> It is not the military’s practice to refer to one individual as a troop, said Col. Dave Lapan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Media Operations.
> Lapan said the Pentagon has no policy or media recommendation on how to refer to U.S. military personnel. He confirmed that using “troop” as a singular noun or “soldiers” to describe personnel outside of the Army is incorrect.
> “A more accurate term is service members,” said Lapan. “There isn’t a universal way of doing it. It tends to be more preference. We [the military] recognize that the media at large uses soldiers in a generic sense.”
> Former Army Times managing editor Robert Hodierne cautions against using the generic term “troops” and encourages specificity. […]
> “My recommendation would be that NPR consistently use service member to avoid any problems,” said Alicia Shepard, NPR Ombudsman. “But if you are sure about what branch of the service, use that. NPR could minimize mistakes — and harm — by implementing a clear policy designed for reporters, hosts and writers to refer to when in doubt.”

http://www.npr.org/sections/ombudsman/2010/08/13/129183352/is-there-such-a-thing-as-one-troop
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