Re: CHAT: Colectives (Re: CHAT: use of "they")

Carlos Thompson wrote:

> If I'm not mistaken, "people" is
> both a plural and a colective, and usually takes the plural form of a verb:
> "people are..."
Here's the rule:

(1) When used without any article, it means people in general, and uses
a plural verb always..  E.g. "People often find conlanging strange."

(2) When used with an article, it means something nearly equivalent
to "tribe" or "ethnicity", and in this function is a count noun (i.e., it may
add the plural -s ending, with the verb agreeing with whatever number
the noun is as indicated by that ending).  E.g., "The peoples of Europe
have long suffered political and social division." or "The French people
has long prided itself on its cultural achievements" or something like that.

> Colombia is hardly an national state, as Canada or the United States are not
> or as France and Germany are.  (Colombian nationality is defined by the
> country, not the country after the nationality.)
I would think many people in all of those countries would disagreewith you.  (Consider:
the viritual cultural homogeneity of the US
and Canada, both internally, and between themselves; and then
the various centrifugal forces that pull away from the nation states
of Germany and France:  in Germany you have the Bavarians,
the Swabians, the Franconians, the Prussians, the Hessians, and
so forth, while in France you have the Basques, the Bretons, the
the speakers of Occitan in the South, in short, quite a lot of diversity
which is unexpected)


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Tom Wier <artabanos@...>
ICQ#: 4315704   AIM: Deuterotom
Website: <http://www.angelfire.com/tx/eclectorium/>
"Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."

We look at [the Tao], and do not see it;
  Its name is the Invisible.
                 - Lao Tsu, _Tao Te Ching_

Nature is wont to hide herself.
                 - Herakleitos
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