Collective Noun

A Collective Noun is a Common Noun that refers to a Group of Things.

• AKA: Noun of Assemblage.
• Context:
  • It can be preceded by an Indefinite Article, such as: “a gaggle”, “the jury”.
  • It can have different forms depending on Context, such as for “geese”, “gaggle” and “skein”.
  • It can require a (?) Verb.
  • It is similar to a Mass Noun.
  • …
• Example(s):
  • “gaggle”, such as in “The gaggle (of geese) is eating grass.”.
  • “skein”, such as in “I saw five skein (of geese) flying south today.”.
  • “geese”, such as in “Geese tend to congregate.”.
  • “jury”
  • “committee”
• Counter-Example(s):
  • “gravel” is a Mass Noun, as in “This stone came from one of those gravel piles”.
  • “egg” is a Countable Noun, as in “I bought five eggs”.
• See: Common Noun.

---

---

References

• http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/collective_noun
  • (grammar) A noun which, though singular, refers to a group of things or animals. Examples: a school of fish, a pride of lions.
• (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun
  • In linguistics, a collective noun is a word used to define a group of objects, where "objects" can be people, animals, emotions, inanimate things, concepts, or other things. For example, in the phrase "a pride of lions," pride is a collective noun.
  • Most collective nouns encountered in everyday speech, such as "group," are mundane and are not specific to one kind of constituent object. For example, the terms "group of people," "group of dogs," and "group of ideas" are all correct uses. Others, especially words belonging to the large subset of collective nouns known as terms of venery (words for groups of animals), are specific to one kind of constituent object. For example, "pride" as a term of venery refers to lions — but not to dogs or llamas.
  • Collective nouns should not be confused with mass nouns, or with the collective grammatical number.
  • collective nouns are not mass (non-count) nouns, but rather are a special subset of count nouns.
  • Some words, including "mathematics" and "physics," have developed true mass-noun senses despite having grown from count-noun roots.
  • Sometimes a term of venery will apply to a group only in a certain context. “Herd" can properly refer to a group of wild horses, but not to a group of domestic horses. A "paddling of ducks" only refers to ducks on water. A group of geese on the ground is referred to as a "gaggle of geese" while a "skein of geese" would refer to them in flight.
• (Wikipedia, 2009) ⇒ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_collective_nouns_for_birds

---