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Carpal Tunnel
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A friend, knowing I was interested in the person/people question, found the entry and commentary below that I paste here:
"I 'rediscovered' a book--Index To English, Seventh Edition, 1982, by a couple of folks named Ebbitt--seems they've been doing this book since 1939. Here's their entry for
people, persons
People has long been used as a collective noun referring to a group, but as recently as the early part of this century, it was regarded as nonstandard when used with numerical quantifiers as the plural of person, as in "Five people are here." Though formal usage still tends to prefer persons, people is now thoroughly established in all plural uses.... Not surprisingly, people-persons is a case of divided usage.
Just for the record,
Wordwind
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I notice that, when commenting on crimes or accidents, US law-enforcement spokesmen tend to use individual. ("One or more individuals were involved in...") As for perp, it often shows up in the phrase perp walk: http://www.nacdl.org/public.nsf/newsreleases/99mn003?opendocument
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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when commenting on crimes or accidents, US law-enforcement spokesmen tend to use individual
Depending on factors not worth reviewing here, the term "person" can include an entity other than an individual, such as a corporation. I suspect that the police jargon arose to distinguish an individual person from a corporate (or other type of) person.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Sparteye has the right of it ... police persons{chuckle} tend to talk about 'individual(s") because it is part of police jargon and includes both male and female.
Person or persons is used so as not to give any indication whether or not the police are looking for one person or a bunch.
The cops are just trying not to give anything away to the bad guys/gals.
When I was covering police beat (1960s & '70s) the term perpetrators was common in CopTalk - because it was gender neutral and looked important in reports -- when writing up police stories I used person. I did not want people to forget that whatever actions were being taken a person was involved. Too easy to objectify a human being by using perpetrator. About the time of TV's "Hill Street Blues" was first time I heard "perp" -- as a pejorative to indicate contempt. The derisive meaning seems to have become most accepted now-a-days.
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the term "person" can include an entity other than an individual, such as a corporation
Too true. We have a grant program where I work, and one of the criteria includes bonus points for applications submitted by a "real" person as opposed to a corporation, partnership, LLC, etc. To clarify the rule we had to use the term "natural person". I hope we don't get any applications from any "unnatural people"!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Dear Flatlander:
Your use of "natural person" for potential applicants made me smile. I first conjured up persons aux naturelles--and then persons behaving in unaffected ways. I think your "natural person" could lead to more confusion than clarity.
Why not "actual person" or "real person" or something else? The "natural person" just sounds commical!
Best regards,
WordWiseacre
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Why not "actual person" or "real person" or something else? The "natural person" just sounds commical!
I'm with you, WW. The "natural person" language was suggested by our counsel and the Tax Department, so we went with it. We joked about what criteria we might use to determine if an applicant was "natural" enough to get the bonus points -- eats only organic foods, wears no synthetic fabrics, etc.
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Carpal Tunnel
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The persons/people argument has been around for at least thirty years. It was discussed in English classes when I was at school. I seem to remember that the general consensus was that there's been a drift in the meaning of both words with "persons" making way for "people" through common usage. Think of the looks you'd get if you announced that there are "two thousand persons in the audience". The temptation would to be to ask what the rest are! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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In Québec, the word persons is still used to denote more than one person though it is being replace by people (eg. The car is only big enough for two persons. There were two persons on each team)
I think it is still hanging on here because in French we use the words personne and personnes.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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we had to use the term "natural person"
[Aretha]
YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE A NAT-UR-AL PEEERSONNNNNNN!!!!
[/Aretha]
I just know that this is going to be stuck in my head all night.
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