Re: 'together vs. to gather'

Padraic wrote:
> In response specifically to "But how can we
> conceive verbs like "to gather" or "to disperse"
> without the notion of plural?" I said the above.
> What I mean is that the notion of "number" has
> nothing to do with the verb, because I can engage
> in "gathering" without ever actually obtaining
> anything. In other words, the word "gather"
> refers to the action of collecting, not to the
> objects collected (or their number) or the
> subject collecting.
>
Non-concur.  As I just wrote, or should have :-(, intrans."gather" requires
the patientsubj. to be a [+count +pl] noun, plus certain mass nouns; trans.
"gather"s patient must be a plural, or a [-count] (mass) noun.

The knights gathered vs *The knight gathered.
A cloud/Clouds gathered, (The/0) water gathered..., but *A/The/0 rice
gathered. *A water gathered.
The king gathered his knights together vs. *The king gathered his knight
together.

I gathered (up) (the) coins/dust/rice vs. *I gathered (up) a coin/a dust/ a
rice

(Hmm, me brain is starting to hurt.......)