Sherry Chandler

Troops

This commentary by linguist John McWhorter was broadcast on All Things Considered on Tuesday (March 27) but it is still worth bringing to your attention. It considers the use of the word troop, especially in news coverage of this current conflict, to refer to an individual soldier.

Troop means a group, a company, a band, or a unit of at least 5 Boy Scouts. An indivudal member of a troop is sometimes called a trooper. It is what we in the editing business refer to as a collective noun. It is plural in meaning but takes a singular verb, like herd or jury.

The use of troop to mean an individual soldier, Marine, sailor, flyer has annoyed me from the beginning. McWhorter has made me understand why:

One cannot refer to a single soldier as a troop. This means that calling 20,000 soldiers “20,000 troops” depersonalizes the soldiers as individuals, and makes a massive number of living, breathing individuals sound like some kind of mass or substance, like water or Jell-O, or some kind of freight.

…The Democrats are seeking to bring soldiers — persons — home, not troops. Mothers do not kiss their troop goodbye as he takes off for Anbar Province. One will never encounter a troop learning to use her prosthetic leg.

Using a name for soldiers that has no singular form grants us a certain cozy distance from the grievous reality of war. Meanwhile, it serves no purpose: It certainly isn’t clearer than soldiers, and in fact is less clear, because one may wonder whether squadrons are meant rather than individuals.

Our national conversation about this war would be more honest if the usage of troops when one means soldiers was considered clumsy, and even rude. Our position on this war must be based on direct consideration of the fact that we are sending human beings to Iraq. After all, we do not designate the contents of a body bag as a troop.

This distinction is not just fuss-budgeting. Poets must respect words. Precise use of language is important. It is by debasing language that demagogues rule. Consider this AP report of testimony Kyle Sampson plans to give before Congress today:

“The distinction between ‘political’ and ‘performance-related’ reasons for removing a United States attorney is, in my view, largely artificial,” said Kyle Sampson…

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Visiting the troops

Make no assumptions

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Two Views of Usefulness

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