Re: CHAT: fiery spirits (was: THE WORLD OF THE JINN)

--- John Cowan <jcowan@...> wrote:
> Costentin Cornomorus scripsit:
>
> > > but how can you expect one
> > > brought up in the classics to use
> > > singular 'homo sapiens' in apposition to
> > > the plural 'us'?    :)
> >
> > By doing just that! "Us Homo sapiens..."
> > Biological Latin ain't what we studied in
> > school!
>
> Technically, Homo sapiens is the name of our
> species, and as such is singular.
Yep. That's why it's unkosher to pluralise it,
except in humorous circumstances. Yet it is
common to use species names as collectives. The
fact that they all have quasi plural terminations
(-s or -i) makes this step trivial.

Unless of course, Ray were going all classical on
us and wondering how he could appose the
nominative "homo" with the oblique "us"! ;) [Of
course, that's not a problem in English, where
inverted case can be a mark of emphasis.]

Padraic.


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