plural agreement for singular subjects

[Paolo Ramat]

The 'constructio ad sensum' is a well-known phenomenon in the classic 
languages and in the Romance too, at least in colloquial style,  as rightly 
noted by Nigel. Cp. Ital. *una marea di persone sono arrivate ieri*, lit. 'a 
tide of people are arrived yesterday', i.e. "lot of people arrived 
yesterday". *sed magna pars[Subj.Sg.] morem hunc induxerunt[Plur]* (Plaut. 
Mo. 114f.) "but most of people did adopt this habit". Of course this happens 
especially with 'collective nouns'

Best,
Paolo

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
prof.Paolo Ramat
Università di Pavia
Dipartimento di Linguistica Teorica e Applicata
tel. ##39 0382 984 484
fax ##39 0382 984 487


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nigel Vincent" <nigel.vincent at MANCHESTER.AC.UK>
To: <LINGTYP at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 11:54 AM
Subject: Re: plural agreement for singular subjects


>I agree with Grev that Guillaume's data is both interesting and yet 
>different
> from the type of phenomenon that Stuart is talking about. On the Guillaume 
> side
> of the list one can add the fact that in Italian the general noun 'la 
> gente'
> meaning 'people' is grammatically singular (cf the fsg art 'la') and
> normatively requires to be followed by a singular verb. In colloquial 
> usage it
> is instead commonly followed by a plural verb and indeed this singular + 
> plural
> usage is regularly included in lists of phenomena said to characterise
> so-called 'italiano popolare'.
> Two other points that occur to me:
> 1. The English pattern Guillaume mentions extends to 'everyone' and 
> 'no-one',
> which trigger singular verb agreement but plural tags: 'everyone has 
> arrived,
> haven't they?'; 'no-one is missing, are they?'
> 2. Some nouns in Romance are now singular but derive from Latin plurals: 
> thus
> French fsg 'la feuille' 'leaf' from Latin 'folia' neuter plural.
> Nigel
>
>
> Quoting Greville Corbett <g.corbett at SURREY.AC.UK>:
>
>> I think the nice example Guillaume cites is an instance of the Œevasive
>> plural¹, avoiding the use of Œhe¹ or Œshe¹. (Some languages use a neuter 
>> to
>> evade the masculine/plural choice in related but not identical contexts.)
>>
>> Other phenomena which are general, and which aren¹t I suspect what Stuart
>> has in mind, are:
>>
>> 1. associative uses of the plural or dual, in those instances where it is
>> just the agreement which shows associative use. For instance, in the 
>> Talitsk
>> dialect of Russian you say the equivalent of  Œmy brother have arrived¹ 
>> to
>> indicate my brother and family.
>> 2. respect: e.g. dual agreement with a singular subject in Kobon, to show
>> respect
>> 3. committee nouns in English: the committee have decided
>> 4. instances of attraction: Rise in email viruses threaten net. (Guardian
>> 4.Aug.2001)
>>
>> Examples of all these are in Number and Agreement (CUP). What Stuart has 
>> is
>> a bit different.
>>
>> Best
>>
>> Grev
>> Greville Corbett
>>
>>
>> On 31/1/07 08:48, "guillaume cnrs" <segerer at VJF.CNRS.FR> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi
>>> Would it seem stupid to mention english ? There is a famous song by 
>>> Sting with
>>> these words :
>>> If you love somebody, set them free 
>>> (http://www.loglar.com/song.php?id=16187)
>>> Being a non-native amateur english speaker, I wonder if you would accept 
>>> words
>>> such as "someone", "somebody" as a 'subclass of singular nouns'.
>>> Regards
>>> Guillaume Segerer
>>>
>>>
>>>> I was wondering whether people on the list know of languages that allow
>>>> plural agreement with some subclass of singular nouns. I have found 
>>>> that
>>>> in Rotokas (a non-Austronesian language spoken in Bougainville, Papua 
>>>> New
>>>> Guinea), neuter subjects (which normally take zero subject agreement)
>>>> sometimes occur with the agreement usually found with plural subjects.
>>>>
>>>> For example, here's the usual plural subject agreement (-i) with a 
>>>> plural
>>>> subject (riroirara kopiipairara):
>>>>
>>>> riro-irara  kopii-pa-irara tou-pa-i-voi      eisi ruvaru-pa kepa-ia
>>>> many-pl.hum sick-dv-pl.hum be-cont-3.pl-pres loc  sick-dv   house-loc
>>>> Many sick people are in the medical station. / Plenti sik manmeri ol i 
>>>> stap
>>>> long haus marasin.
>>>>
>>>> And here's plural subject agreement (-i) with a singular neuter noun
>>>> (evaova):
>>>>
>>>> evao-va   koki-vira      tou-pa-i-voi
>>>> tree-sg.f have.holes-adv be-cont-3.pl-pres
>>>> The tree has holes. / Diwai i gat hol.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance.
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>> Stuart Robinson
>>>>
>>>> + -----------------------------------------------------+
>>>> | Stuart Robinson <stuart dot robinson at mpi dot nl>  |
>>>> | Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics           |
>>>> | Postbus 310                                          |
>>>> | 6500 AH Nijmegen                                     |
>>>> | The Netherlands                                      |
>>>> | +31 (0)64 854 6708 (mobile)                          |
>>>> | http://www.mpi.nl/Members/StuartRobinson            |
>>>> + -----------------------------------------------------+
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Greville G. Corbett
>>
>> Surrey Morphology Group
>> CMC
>> School of Arts, Communication and Humanities
>> University of Surrey
>> Guildford                                   email: g.corbett at surrey.ac.uk
>> Surrey, GU2 7XH                             FAX:   +44 1483 686201
>> Great Britain                               phone:  +44 1483 682849
>> http://www.surrey.ac.uk/LIS/SMG/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Professor Nigel Vincent, FBA
> Associate Vice-President for Graduate Education
>
>
> Mailing address:     School of Languages, Linguistics & Cultures
>                     University of Manchester
>                     Manchester M13 9PL
>                     United Kingdom
>
> Tel (direct):        +44-(0)-161-275-3194
> Fax:                 +44-(0)-161-275-3031