BBC English: the decline and fall continues
The BBC rolling headline thing referred this evening to a report about an apparent ‘friendly fire’ incident in Afghanistan with these words: MoD investigating claim UK ‘friendly fire’ killed two Danish troops.
If one individual had been reported dead, would the headline have referred to the killing of ‘one Danish troop’? In the report itself the casualties are described, quite accurately, as ‘Danish soldiers’.
More BBC misuse of the term ‘troops’ here (’eight Turkish troops’) and here (’six US soldiers and three Afghan troops’ - ludicrous).
For more on what the term ‘troops’ means and how it should and should not be used, see this NPR article by linguist John McWhorter. He spoils his case somewhat by politicizing the issue, writing in a rather hand-wringing way that ‘Using a name for soldiers that has no singular form [i.e. troops] grants us a certain cozy distance from the grievous reality of war’. I don’t agree: it’s not politics, it’s just ignorance.
