non-head nominals and number agreement

[sagehen]

>On Jul 25, 2007, at 5:02 PM, Alison Murie wrote:
>
>>  Brits at one time (and perhaps still, though I don't remember
>> hearing it
>> in quite a while) used plural verbs with collective nouns, as in "The
>> government are..." &c.
>
>the usage is still with us, and is widespread (and virtually
>obligatory) in certain contexts, such as names of sports teams.
>there's a pretty considerable literature on the usage now.
>
>i don't think that british collective agreement has anything
>significant to do with the quantificational noun cases, though.
>
>arnold
>
 ~~~~~~~
I wasn't really putting my analysis forward seriously, since I'm reasonably
sure that  in both cases it was the plural "stories" & "incidents" that led
the speaker astray.
AM

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org