One of those who: VP Sg or VP Pl?

[Terry Irons]

This kind of question arose with respect to a line a character I am
playing has in a current production of "A Man for All Seasons."    In
this case, the antecedent for who is the nearer form "those" of which
the speaker is one.  "Those" is plural, so within the framework of
prescriptive grammar the verb should be "like."    If the speaker were
the only one of the group, then in fact "one" is the antecedent.  Of
course, I think we should simply drop the use of the third person
present tense singular "s," and allow the process of grammatical
leveling of verbal inflections to complete its natural course, as it has
done in some varieties of PDE.


--
Virtually, Terry
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Terry Lynn Irons        t.irons at morehead-st.edu
Voice Mail:             (606) 783-5164
Snail Mail:             UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351
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