LL-L "Morphology" 2003.02.17 (08) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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From: Ian James Parsley <parsleyij at yahoo.com>
Subject: Englishes

Ron et al,

Well of course you are quite right, Ron, that
linguistic differences do lead to a broadening of
horizons. They make you challenge your own assumptions
and preconceptions, and that is a good thing of
course.

On the subject of Englishes, though, I wish to raise a
point I believe I raised on this list some time ago,
concerning collective nouns and the verb/pronoun forms
used with them. Thus:

Tampa Bay wins its first ever Superbowl

but

Arsenal win their 12th Championship

Again, I suspect British English has changed on this
one, preferring the plural verb and pronoun to refer
to the singular team as a plural collection of
individuals. I suspect this for two reasons:
- Older British newsreel and comedy programmes use
singular (e.g. Fawlty Towers: 'Hampshire won - Oh, did
*it*?)
- Irish usage appears uncertain (as does Australian
and South African), sometimes using one and sometimes
the other.

However, my perception is that American itself may
even be changing. For example, I definitely heard the
apparently grammatically contradictory 'Tampa Bay wins
their first Championship' last month. On the other
hand, this could merely be confusion, as American
teams of course often have a plural name ('The Tampa
Bay Buccaneers win their...').

I must say most languages I know prefer the singular
in such cases:
'Die Regierung ist...'
'PSV is...'

Observations or thoughts anyone?

=====
------------------
Ian James Parsley
www.ianjamesparsley.net
+44 (0)77 2095 1736
JOY - "Jesus, Others, You"


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