A few months ago, I verified a conjecture about degrees of grammaticality by comparing google hits. Yesterday, Geraint Jennings pointed out that the "flights" of drinks offered on upscale restaurant menus are a calque of French "volée", which has been borrowed directly as volley. In uses like "volée de coups", it seemed to me, volley is not as likely a translation as barrage, and in fact for the particular case of punches and kicks, the most idiomatic English collective noun seemed me to be (the snow word!) flurry. I wondered if these guesses are really valid, so I did a quick google check:
punches |
kicks |
|
flight of |
1 |
0 |
volley of |
465 |
133 |
barrage of |
2,720 |
613 |
flurry of |
5,760 |
1,310 |
Q.E.D.
Posted by Mark Liberman at January 12, 2004 08:21 PM