I recently found myself in yet another debate over the usage of "fish" vs. "fishes" and other similar issues.
Unless I'm mistaken, I'm rather sure that "fish" just refers to more than one fish whereas "fishes" refers to more than one type of fish.
Anyway, I figure that sort of thing has to have a name but I couldn't find one. Anybody got any ideas? In the process I came across interesting words Ichthyology and Isogloss.
Final thought: does the same rule apply to "persons" and "people"?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
I don't really know the legitimacy of 'fish' vs. 'fishes', but I would tend to try to avoid confusion by referring to a specific 'fish' or 'types of fish.'
ReplyDelete'Persons' vs. 'People': I think when you use 'people' you are referring to a group with a defining characteristic(s) that bonds them, and this common characteristic is that which to you refer. When you use 'persons' you are intentionally saying that you are speaking of a characteristic that the set of people may not have in common. For example, I would say, "The people of the Republican Party are largely angry over Obama having won the election," but, "Many persons within the Republican Party have at least one policy overlap with Obama." The former implies a uniformity of opinion; the latter implies that while each person has an overlap these overlaps are not always the same.
I have no idea if I am correct in either of these cases.
Like Bart, I have no idea if I'm correct, but "persons" never sounds right to me. I know it's a real word and I'm sure there are appropriate uses, but I use "people" exclusively because I can't think of an instance where that would be incorrect. Same goes for "fishes" - I can't imagine that referring to different types of fish as, "look at all those fish!" (rather than fishes) would be wrong.
ReplyDeleteI don't think saying "look at all those fish" would be wrong so much as you'd just be saying something different. (i.e., if you wanted to comment on the diversity within a tank you might say "look at all those fishes").
ReplyDeleteI have to say, though, I'm definitely in agreement with Katie's sentiment, particularly about "persons."
Let me put it this way - I know you don't "raise" children, but I will always say that before saying that I "rear" them.
...if for no other reason than that the latter sounds icky.
ReplyDelete