LL-L "Morphology" 2003.04.21 (01) [E]

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Morphology"

> Well, remember that in pre-PC times it was quite common to say
> "the Indian"
> or "the German" with plural meaning, i.e., in stereotyping _par
> excellence_
> (which tended to go hand-in-hand with the liberal use of the word
"race,"
> i.e., "the German race"); e.g., "The Indian is quite contented under His
> Majesty's gracious rule."  But ... perhaps I'm complicating the issue at
> hand?

I don't think this is a plural meaning, rather it's a figure
of speech using the individual as a representative of the whole.

Thus, Rudyard Kipling writes:

"The 'eathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone."

It's singular, but represents all of heathendom through a single
example of the average heathen-in-the-street.

And, as you say, "The Indian is..." not "The Indian are...".

I can never remember the names of all those figures of speech,
but this is similar to the one where one says "the crown" to
represent the monarchy, or "the theatre" to represent all theatres.

So you could say "The Scotch" as a plural or "The Scotchman"
as a representative singular. On the other hand you could say
"Many Scotch..." but not "Many Scotchman..." - in the latter
case you'd have to pluralise it to "Many Scotchmen...".

On the other hand "The Japanese" seems to be already pluralised.
You can say "many Japanese" but "the Japanese". I remember
reading some old poem called "The Heathen Chinee" - does this
come from taking "Chinese" as a plural and removing what is
mistakenly taken for a plural morpheme? The back-formed singular
then being used to stand for the Chinese as a whole!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org/

----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Morphology

Sandy,

> I don't think this is a plural meaning, rather it's a figure
> of speech using the individual as a representative of the whole.
>
> Thus, Rudyard Kipling writes:
>
> "The 'eathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone."
>
> It's singular, but represents all of heathendom through a single
> example of the average heathen-in-the-street.
>
> And, as you say, "The Indian is..." not "The Indian are...".

I know that it is morphologically singular, but it is implicitly plural,
"representative singular" if you will.

> I can never remember the names of all those figures of speech,
> but this is similar to the one where one says "the crown" to
> represent the monarchy, or "the theatre" to represent all theatres.

Similar perhaps, but ... in this case you are using the name of an *entity*
you are describing, the same as saying "the government," "the legal system,"
"academia," "show business," "the theater (world)," "the media," etc.  "The
Indian ..." is a stereotypical device, referring to one member
(morphologically singular) of a group to refer to the group as a whole
(implicitly plural).  I think the reason why this particular device is on
its way out is that it is perceived as blatant stereotyping, which used to
be common practice but is no longer considered acceptable in most circles.

> I remember
> reading some old poem called "The Heathen Chinee" - does this
> come from taking "Chinese" as a plural and removing what is
> mistakenly taken for a plural morpheme?

This is deliberate.  The Modern Chinese languages permit few final
consonants.  In most Mandarin dialects there are only -n, -ng and -(e)r, in
some dialects also a final glottal stop.  In Cantonese dialects (with which
British colonial forces were most familiar) you get -n, -ng, -m and
unreleased -p and -t (similar in Shanghainese, with which the British were
also familiar).  Final fricatives (such as -z, -s, -v and -f) are not
permissible in any of the Chinese phonologies.  Therefore, in China Coast
Pidgin (based mostly on English and Chinese) final fricatives are deleted,
hence "Chinese" > "Chinee" (in Cantonese varieties and in Southern Mandarin
dialects often "Chilee," because /n/ and /l/ have merged to /l/ in many
regional dialects, including dialects of Canton and Hong Kong (Cantonese),
as well as Nanjing/Nanking (Southern Mandarin)).

Cheers!
Reinhard/Ron

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