_implant NP with_

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Feb 19, 2012, at 1:53 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
> Voiceover to a commercial:
>
> "If you or a loved one _have been implanted with_ Avaulta pelvic mesh …"
>
>
> Except for the fact I hadn't noticed this version of the construction
> before today, I can't seriously claim to find anything interesting
> about it, beyond its novelty.
>
> OTOH, as first-year high-school students, in the fall of 1950, we were
> specifically taught - that is, this "rule" wasn't simply mentioned in
> passing; rather, we were also tested on our comprehension of it - that
> "NP _and_ NP" always takes a plural verb, whereas, WRT "NP _or_ NP,"
> the number of the verb always matches the number of the NP immediately
> preceding that verb. Therefore:
>
> "If you _or_ a loved one HAS …"
>
> Hence <harumph!>, I must reject the sentence, though only on stylistic
> grounds, sadly. ;-)

maybe you should be wary of accepting at face value things you were taught in high school.

some discussion:

AZ, 4/4/09: Agreement with disjunctive subjects:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1293

http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/more-variation-than-expected/

http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2009/04/06/he-or-she-are/

http://arnoldzwicky.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/sg-or-sg-pl/

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