Sunday, October 3, 2010

How do I find the collective noun in this statement? "Edward Buffem, a journalist working as a miner, witnessed vigilantes in action. Two...

A collective noun is one noun that refers to a group, or a collective.  You may have heard of a herd of cattle, a gaggle of geese, or a pride of lions.  "Herd," "gaggle," and "pride" would all be collective nouns here because they speak about a group.  A collective noun acts singularly even though it implies a group.  


Back to your question...actually, the answer is in the last line of the passage.  A miner's court is the collective noun, because you state that it is made up of two hundred people.  These two hundred cannot be differentiated from each other in the passage--they act together as one court; therefore, miner's court is the collective noun.  If the miner's court had a jury, then "jury" would be a collective noun as well, because generally more than one person sits on a jury.  

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