Agreement question

[Peter A. McGraw]

The most famous example of this British usage is "H.M. Government are..."
On a trip through Heathrow Airport many years ago I was struck by an ad for
a construction firm.  The firm's name was Billy something--Barnham?
Something like that.  The ad said: "Billy Barnham built this terminal.
Billy Barnham build everywhere."  I've never run across a variety of AE
where this would be acceptable.  I don't know whether the British also say,
"the press are..." or whether Jesse's quote came from a British or an
American source.

Peter Mc.

--On Friday, October 18, 2002 1:39 PM -0400 Beverly Flanigan
<flanigan at OHIOU.EDU> wrote:

> I've read that British usage tends to give a plural, collectivist sense to
> words like "press," along the lines Pat mentioned in another posting.  I
> can't think of other examples cited, though, and I can't recall the
> source.  Was it on this list?



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                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu