Re: USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE:

John Cowan writes:
 > Nik Taylor scripsit:
 >
 > > Buffalo yes, antelope, I wouldn't say "the antelope are", but it's not
 > > completely ungrammatical for me; wildebeest, I think so.
 >
 > Can you cope with "Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam,
 > where the deer and the antelope play?"  This is the example that
 > convinced me that "antelope" pl. is O.K.
 >
Not that I disagree with using antelope as a plural, but isn't it also
possible to analyse "deer" and "antelope" in that line as generic
singulars?  Kind of "The lion is found in Africa" kind of thing (I
don't know any technical term for this device, but "generic singular"
seems appropriate).