I recently saw the above in a newpaper headline. In order to save space, newspapers often use non-standard grammar. In normal writing or speech, a sentence like "Two police were killed" is ungrammatical, incorrect English.

The word "police" is a plural word, as the following shows:

The police are here now.
After the police examined the scene, they left.

This means that we cannot count police. "One police, two police..." is not correct.

"The police" is the name of the organization, and it is plural. If we want to talk about the people within the organization, we have to say, "two policemen/two police officers". The headline should have read "Two policemen/police officers were killed".

Note that "police" is different from collective nouns like "group", "family", etc. (see Columnns 28, 29, 30). Although such nouns are made up of numbers of individuals, they can be used in both the singular and plural:

one group, two groups
one family, two families

Perhaps readers are wondering what we say if we want to talk about several police organizations. In this case, we use the expression "police force". If the Kanagawa police, the Chiba police, and the Tochigi police are carrying out a joint investigation, we can say:

Three police forces are carrying out the investigation.

In Column 90, I said that "police" is itself a plural word, with no singular. Therefore we say, "The police are ..."

There are not many other words like this in English. The word "people" might occur to readers ("The people are..."). However, it is easier to regard "people" as an irregular plural of "person" (which itself has a regular plural: persons).

I am sure that readers know that "people" itself, although it is plural, has its own plural, as in:

The peoples of the world strongly desire peace.
（世界の諸民族が平和を強く望んでいる）

So "people" is not really a good example of a plural word with no singular.

Below is a list of words which are regarded as being plural in their own right. Some of these can also be used with a singular verb (often "incorrectly" according to strict, traditional grammar). I have given a usage note in such cases.

PEOPLE

1. majority 大多数、大部分
The majority are in favour of your proposal.
大多数があなたの提案に賛成している。
(Used equally in singular and plural)
> a member of the majority/one of the majority

2. offspring 子供、子孫
If you count grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she has a very large number of offspring.
孫やひ孫も計算に入れれば、彼女は大変多くの数の子孫がいる。
> one of her offspring

3. media メディア、マスコミ
The media are very biassed.
マスコミは非常に偏っている。
(Used equally in singular and plural)
> a media organization

4. intelligentsia インテリ階級
The so-called intelligentsia think that they know everything.
いわゆるインテリ階級は自分たちは何でも知っていると思っている。
(Used equally in singular and plural)
> a member of the intelligentsia

5. clergy 聖職者、牧師たち
The clergy are not very well paid.
聖職者の実入りはあまりよくない。
(Used more often in plural)
> a member of the clergy/one of the clergy/a priest

PLACES

6. outskirts 郊外
The outskirts of this town are not very nice.
この町の郊外はあまりよくない。
> a part of the outskirts

7. headquarters 本部、本店
Where are the headquarters of your company?
御社の本店をどこにありますか。
(Used equally in singular and plural)
> the headquarters building

8. barracks 兵舎
The barracks the soldiers live in are very dirty.
その兵士たちが住んでいる兵舎は大変きたない。
(Used equally in singular and plural)

THINGS

9. data データ
These data are all incorrect.
これらのデータはすべて不正確だ。
(Used equally in singular and plural)
> one piece [part] of the data/a datum

10. goods 品物
The goods you ordered have arrived.
あなたの注文した品物が届きました。
> an item

11.earnings 稼ぎ高、所得
My earnings for this year have gone up.
私の今年の所得は上がった。

12. remains 残り物、残り
The remains of the meal were on the table.
残飯はテーブルの上にあった。
> a part of the remains

13. arms 武器
Our country exports a lot of arms.
我が国は多くの武器を輸出している。
> a weapon/a piece of military equipment

14. dregs おり、かす
After he finished drinking, there were no dregs left in the bottle.
彼が飲み終わると、瓶にはかすが全く残っていなかった。

ANIMALS

15. cattle 家畜としての牛全体
The cattle are in good health.
牛はみな健康だ。
> a cow/a bull

16. swine 家畜としての豚全体
He is an expert on swine, and their diseases.
彼は豚とその様々な病気の専門家である。
> a pig/a hog

17.poultry 家禽
The poultry are all kept in that large shed.
飼い鳥はすべてあの大きな小屋で飼われている。
> a chicken

18. vermin 害獣、害虫
The vermin in this house are driving me crazy.
この家の害虫のことを考えると［見ると］気が狂いそうになる。
> a rat...etc

In Column 89, I pointed out that when we want to talk of one individual among "the police" we say "a policeman" or "a police officer". After the arrowheads above, I have listed ways of talking about one person, item, etc. among these nouns.

We can think that anything I say now is connected to what has been said before, by someone, somewhere. And it is also connected to what might be said in the future, by someone, somewhere.

If you read this Column, and then say to a friend, "Barnard wrote that ...", your words are connected to my words. The idea that what people say and write is connected to what other people say and write is know as "intertextuality".

Let me give you another example of intertextuality. If you are learning a language, you probably use and re-use the language that is in textbooks and dictionaries (the example sentences, dialogues, etc.). Your language echoes, as it were, the language of the textbooks and dictionaries.

This echoing of language through time and space is what I mean by intertextuality.

Each language and culture has a very rich network of intertextuality. Thus references to historical events, famous people, proverbs, nursery rhymes, songs, literature, recent news items, ordinary comments by ordinary people, and so on, are continually being recycled in language.

Mr Horie was not the first person to use the expression「想定内」, but he did make it very popular. After that, this expression continued, and is still continuing, to echo through Japanese society. No one can say how long these echoes will continue. Probably for several years; perhaps for hundreds of years.

If someone is learning Japanese as a foreign language, they do not really understand Japanese if they think that 「想定内」simply means "within my expectations". Because「想定内」has been echoing so strongly in Japanese society, we can say that it means much more than "within my expectations".

For example, we can now make jokes with「想定内」. We could not have done this three or four years ago.

In the next Column, I will look at the meaning of the newspaper headline, "Koizumi and Bush talk beef" from the point of view of intertextuality.