--- Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> wrote:
> On Friday, October 17, 2003, at 07:48 , John
> Cowan 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!
>
> {sigh} I _know_ it ain't.
> I though the smiley might indicate that I
> wasn't being entirely
> serious.
I know. That's why I said I understood it to be
_humour_!
> > Technically, Homo sapiens is the name of our
> > species, and as such is
> > singular. In my view, we are parts of that
> > singular entity, not members
> > of a group with that name.
>
> Yep - quite right. Also technically, 'us Homo
> Sapiens' is still a plural
> pronoun
> in apposition to a singular noun; nor, indeed,
> is a part the same as the whole.
Except that 100% of the "us" are of that species;
it's not too much of a leap to equate the
individual with the species.
> To be correct I guess I should have written
> "....us of the Homo Sapiens species."
Yes. But that would have killed the humour!
> It would be convenient if Homo Sapiens could be
> used like the English 'Man' which,
> when spelled with uppercase M, is a collective
> noun denoting the human species and
> has no plural; but can be - indeed is more
> often - an ordinary common noun
> 'man', with plural 'men', denoting an (adult, >
male) individual of that species, i. e.
> Homo Sapiens, but an 'homo sapiens' (plural:
> homines sapientes).
This grates on the sensibilities. That means that
there are not only two species called "sapiens",
but two genera called "Homo"! That is definitely
a Bad Thing! ;)
It might simply be best to leave the Genus +
species thing alone; and when we want to use it
humorously, do it without messing about. As you
did originally!
> I just found "..us homines sapientes" vaguely
> amusing at the time.
As did I!
Padraic.
=====
- Nos côsez yen fin xristianós et trancouil
- Côsez-el a Ddon!
--
Ill Bethisad --
<http://www.geocities.com/elemtilas/ill_bethisad>
Come visit The World! --
<http://www.geocities.com/hawessos/>
.