Collective Noun - Academic Mode

Definition of collective noun
The term collective noun denotes a group of objects, people, animals, or ideas as a single concept or thing. Although a collective noun is not a single person or thing in a group, it is considered as a single idea, entity, or thing. It is also known as a "group noun".

Depending on the meanings in the given context, a collective noun can be replaced by a singular or plural pronoun. Common examples of collective nouns are: army, band, cast, committee, crowd, family, faculty, group, jury, society, school, employee, team, and troop. In the sentence: “The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in prison; Without this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence. “(A little book in C major, by H. Mencken)“ Jury ”is a collective term that represents a group of judges.

Common examples of Collective Noun
Napoleon's army at Waterloo before defeat.

She comes from a decent family; She is the youngest of six children.
The pop group will go on a world tour next month.
Our cricket team has star players who can win the world championship.
The committee enjoyed donuts with tea.
The audience was satisfied with the stage performance.
Examples of collective terms in literature
Example 1: Animal farm (by George Orwell)
"The two had horses was just lying down when a brood of ducklings who had lost their mother came into the barn, beeped faintly, and wandered from side to side to find a place where they would not go ... He formed the egg production committee for the chickens, the Clean Tails League for the cows, the Wild Comrades re-education committee (the aim was to tame the rats and rabbits), the Whiter Wool Movement for the sheep and various others, besides the introduction of reading and teaching classes Write. "

In this paragraph the underlined words" a brood of ducklings "and a" committee "are collective terms, but each appears to be a single noun.

Example 2: The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer)
" As I was all I prepared myself for it prepared to leave for Canterbury with a pious heart.
That had come to the hostel that night
At night twenty-nine, a company
Various different people whom chance had brought down ...
I had talked to everyone about the trip
And was a member of the community .

This passage used two collective terms: "a society of Sunday people "and" a member of the community ". Both words are singular but have been used in a sense to denote a group of individuals.

Example 3: A Modest Proposal (by Jonathan Swift)
“Hence, whoever could find a fair, cheap, and easy way to do this Making children sound and useful members of the common good deserved it so well that his statue was erected for a keeper of the nation ... ”

Swift has used“ common good ”for an organization and“ public ”for an organization large numbers of people while“ Nation ”also stands for a mass of people.

Example 4: Catch-22 (by Joseph Heller)
“ Soon he banned parts of salutations and signatures and left the text untouched. He once deleted everything but the greeting 'Dear Mary' from a letter, and at the bottom he wrote: 'I long for you tragically. Guardian, Chaplain, US Army ' R. Shipman was the name of the group chaplain. "

The word" Army "in this paragraph is a collective noun. It is a defense organization that has a number of troops working under a banner. However, it seems singular.

Example # 5: The Catcher in the Rye (by J. Salinger) “I was the damn director of the fencing team. Very big deal. We had gone to New York that morning to meet with McBurney School. “

In these lines,“ school ”is a collective term, an institute with faculty members, students and other workers.

Function
A collective term describes a series of things, ideas or people as a single thing. Collective terms consist of individuals. Such a team is nothing without individuals. They are often used in writing and in everyday speech to make them concise, short and meaningful. Collective terms are also used as the subject of the sentence. Hence, like any other noun, they play an important role in the sentence to provide clarity and make text relevant.