distributive plural

[kins_turn]

I came across this sentence in a newspaper saying 'All doctors in the hospital carry a bleeper.' As far as distributive plural is concerned, would the sentence be more accurate if it is written as 'All doctors in the hospital carry bleepers.' since all doctors are doing the same thing. I based my opinion on an example from a grammar book: 'Tell the kids to bring raincoats to school tomorrow.'

[gdwdwrkr]

You are right.
To use the singular bleeper you'd have to say "Each doctor in the hospital carries a bleeper."
Unless the newspaper story was about a doctor parade with a bleeper float.

[Shelley]

They're beepers, not bleepers -- at least in my neck of the woods. Also known as pagers.

[Tony Farg]

Gosh. Definitely bleepers here unless someone makes a blooper.

[gdwdwrkr]

We're three little sheep who have lost our way;
blaaa blaaa blaaa

[kins_turn]

Bleeper is a british word while beeper is US.

[Phil White]

I think you will find that it's not quite that simple.

"Bleeper" is almost exclusively restricted to the UK. "Beeper" on the other hand, is widespread in the UK as well as being pretty well exclusively used in the US.

[Phil White]

As far as your original question is concerned, the singular is very common, at least in UK usage. In particular, if there were to be any confusion with respect to the number of pagers each person carries, the singular is clear. "All doctors carry stethoscopes" may suggest that they will have a spare one to lend or give you. "All doctors carry a stethoscope" is clear.

The apparent grammatical disagreement can be avoided by using "each doctor", but in my opinion this is unnecessarily pedantic. The sentence is accurate and correct as it stands.

[hsargent]

It is correct as written.

On the side note, a bleeper is a means of covering someones recorded curse word. So we Americans would interpret, "doctors carry bleepers" is that they continually say things not for public consumption and a bleeper covers it up.

I appreciate learning the contrast between UK and US, bleeper and beeper.

[dalehileman]

Phil has said it so well I wish I had said it first