Phil Taylor writes: | John Chambers wrote: | | >(One textbook example for English is the lack of any word that is the | >singular form of "cattle". Other languages have such words, and they | >can't be translated to English with a single word. But you aren't | >going to fix the English language; all you can do is chuckle and use | >a phrase that includes "or" for your translation.) | | The singular of "cattle" is "cow". Not "cow or bull"; the word "cow" | is both the name of the species and of a female individual of that | species. I actually ran into this problem when writing up my PhD | thesis (which was on the biochemistry of semen). I referred to | "bull semen" at one point and my supervisor (himself a world expert | in the field of Reproductive Biology) wanted it changed to "cow semen".
Well, I doubt if you'd find any agreement on this among many native speakers. People can make up such rules all they like, but it'll have little effect on the rest of us. And "cow or bull" isn't even sufficient. These don't include "steer" or "heifer", which are members of the same species. There is little trouble finding similar terminology problems in the various kinds of music that we all play here. | Now look here boss, I'm a country boy. I live on a farm. Let me | explain something to you... I milked a few cows when I was little ... To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
