"a nation who has ..."?

[Chris F Waigl]

Joel S. Berson wrote:
> At 10/26/2007 08:24 PM, Chris Waigl wrote:
>
>> Also, note all the plurals above from American sources.
>>
>
> And some from British sources.  I see a mixed bag of singular and
> plural, and one quote that used singular with "firm" and plural with
> "company."  Do I sense, from this small sample, a plurality for the
> plural with "nation"?
>
>
*Well yes, sure, but it's overwhelmingly singular in the contemporary
sources except in BrE when "nation" is a metonymy for "national
football/cricket/rugby/whatever team". Or of course in cases like "the X
people are a nation who [+ plural verb]".

(The firm/singular, company/plural example was from a quote that sounded
as if it had been re-written quite a bit. I imagine the original spoken
statement was a little muddled.)

Here is more -- the Guardian search I used: http://dwarfurl.com/74cd4

Chris Waigl
*

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