Re: USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE: [CONLANG] Optimum number of symbols

Jan van Steenbergen writes:

 > But now you say, that "police" is a plural as well? That suprises me! I would
 > say, that it corresponds with "politie" (Dutch), Polizei (German), la police
 > (French), policja (Polish), etc. All singular! If you ask me (which I won't say
 > you should do), "police" should be one of those collective singulars (like
 > shit, or, to keep it polite, money) that have no plural.
 >
 > Jan

It's actually rather difficult to tell, at least in UK English.  It's
not a mass noun like shit or money - I'd never say "there is some
police here".  It's either a collective singular like "government" or
it's a plural with no singular, or both.  I think it is a plural, at
least as I am accustomed to using it.  You could say "the British
government is an organization" even if you also say "the government
are taking a stand on this issue", but I don't know if you can say
"the Metropolitan Police is an organization".  It doesn't sound
_completely_ wrong, but you'd be more likely to say "the Metropolitan
Police _Force_ is an organization".  If you talked like me, that is.