singular debris?

[Mike Salovesh]

"Dennis R. Preston" wrote:
>
> For real speakers, agreement is much more often with the "sense" than with
> the traditional form. "A gob of guys are in the other room." I would have
> to be threatened to say "A gob of guys is..." (to agree with singular
> "gob").
>
> dInIs (not always a real speaker, having been successfully thrreatened from
> time to time)

Maybe, but the following feels comfortable to me:

"There is (alternate: there's) a gob of guys in the next room."

In this construction, *"there are" just ain't me, whether I'm being real
or reverting to my native language, Platform English.

--  mike salovesh             <salovesh at niu.edu>        PEACE !!!