Re: USAGE: THEORY/USAGE: irregular English plurals (was: RE: [CONLANG]

From: "John Cowan" <jcowan@...>
> > As for animals, the bare plurals are arguably regular, due to a
> > productive rule saying that nouns denoting animals of a certain type
> > (huntable?) take bare plurals; certainly the list is open-ended, a
> > telltale sign of productivity.
>
> I think the criterion is herdable (or self-herding) rather than huntable,
> but foxes are huntable, and goats herdable, so I think we have an irregular
> survival rather than any sort of rule.  I cannot think of any modernly
> discovered animal which has a zero plural.
But I think the zero plural can be extended to all fish?

As for the regularity/herdability of the plural animals, maybe one could analyze
them as mass nouns/clipped forms of "[school of] trout" / "[herd of] antelope"
in the same way as "bucket of sand" / "glass of water" ?


    *Muke!
--
http://www.frath.net/

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