In Germany (German), if you see a set of mountains, you exclaim, "Beautiful gebirge", where 'gebirge' is collective for 'set of mountains'. The point is that the thing is perceived (alla Strawson) as an 'individual'. This is totally different, they claim, from "What beautiful mountains!"
Die Berge des Himalaya (The mountains of Himalaya). Everest, K2, Kanchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri I, Manaslu, Nanga Parbat, Broad Peak, ...
www.himalaya-info.org/ -
I claim that the difference is implicatural. Alla, "One troop was killed and his name was Jim."
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I claim that the difference is implicatural.
ReplyDeleteReally? What about the grand metaphysics, JL? The difference could relate to a universal/particular distinction more evident in the ...traditional euro languages, such as Latin and German (which have the cases, more formal declensions, etc), than in english, french, etc.
It would take some time to establish, but I think Deutsch allows for more collective nouns, such as Das Hochgebirge (see my latest note-scrawl), w/o the plural indicated. Anglo does allow some collectives but usually indicates the plural. Or something. At least the german doesn't just append "s", but has various ways on indicating plural, collective, mass nouns, etc.