ABSTRACT
Collective names embrace place names when the latter are used to designate e.g. sports teams. ‘Come on, Chelsea!’ is an exhortation to the players who at that moment form the Chelsea Football Club team. A collective nickname might also be used: ‘Get stuck in, Bees!’ to the Brentford side. Many sports teams have names other than place names, so Raiders, Dolphins, or whatever serve the same purpose, identifying individuals beneath an umbrella term. Any group of people who are clearly representing a named entity, whether it be a country or a small club, a town or a business, may be addressed by a group vocative which includes them all, though none of them would be addressed individually by that name. In the case of sports teams, simple colour names may be substituted for the official names: ‘Well done, blues!’
