non-head nominals and number agreement

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

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

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