none...have/has

[Mark A. Mandel]

Paul Frank <paulfrank at POST.HARVARD.EDU> writes:

>>>>>
"None of the shark attacks in Florida have involved people on shark- feeding
expeditions, though one woman in the Keys was bitten on the calf last year
by a nurse shark after crew members on a boat tossed scraps of fish into the
water."

Would it sound stilted to write "none of the shark attacks in Florida has
involved..."?
<<<<<

It would to me. Sure, "none" is historically derived from "no one", but the
link has been broken. As far as I'm concerned, "none" has the number of
its... (what would we call "the shark attacks", grammatically, wrt
"none"?)... of whatever it's applied to.

USA, male, born 1948, NYC & environs, academic.


-- Mark

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
          Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Senior Linguist
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com