| 词组 | agreement, subject-verb: compound subjects |
| 释义 | agreement, subject-verb: compound subjects 1. Joined by ''and." Before the 18th-century grammarians undertook to prune the exuberant growth of English, no one seems to have worried whether two or more singular nouns joined by a copulative conjunction (and) took a plural or a singular verb. Writers of the 16th and 17th centuries used whatever verb sounded best and did not trouble themselves about grammatical agreement. "Scoffing and girding is their daily bread," wrote Gabriel Harvey in his 16th-century dispute with Thomas Nashe and Robert Greene (cited in McKnight 1928). Shakespeare could write "art and practice hath enriched" in Measure for Measure and in Much Ado About Nothing "All disquiet, horror, and perturbation follows her" (both cited in McKnight). The King James Bible at Daniel 5:14 has "light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee" (cited in Hall 1917). So when Lowth 1762 set his rule down, he was well aware of mixed usage. He favored the plural but allowed for the singular "sometimes," using James Greenwood's earlier analysis that the singular verb "is understood as applied to each of the preceding terms"; thus, we find in the Bible: • Sand, and salt, and a mass of iron, is easier to bear, than a man without understanding —Ecclesiasticus 22:18 (Douay), 1609 Priestley 1761 takes a different approach but reaches a similar conclusion: • It is a rule, that two distinct subjects of an affirmation require the verb to be in the plural number.... But, notwithstanding this, if the subject of the affirmation be nearly related, the verb is rather better in the singular number. Nothing but the marvellous and supernatural hath any charms for them. Priestley's approach is reflected in some 20th-century commentators (Vizetelly 1906, Barzun 1975, Freeman 1983, who quotes Fowler), but where our moderns allow the singular verb with compound singular nouns close in thought, Priestley rather insisted on it, quoting David Hume's "His politeness and obliging behaviour were changed" and saying "was would have read better." The insistence that only the plural verb is correct seems to have begun with a writer named Philip Withers in 1788 (cited in Leonard 1929); his attack on the singular verb was based entirely on logic. He appears to have influenced several later grammarians including Lindley Murray 1795. Murray assembled his grammar largely from Lowth and Priestley, but in this instance he insists on the plural verb, mentioning Lowth's exceptions but finding them "evidently contrary to the first principles of grammar." Modern grammarians are not so insistent. Curme 1931 and Quirk et al. 1985 agree that in modern practice the plural verb prevails after coordinate singular nouns with and: • While Keats and Chapman were at Heidelberg — Myles na gCopaleen (Flann O'Brien), The Best of My les, 1968 • ... Trixie La Monte, Margie White, Florence Lee-per, Donna Rogers, Doris Hudson, Sandra Lee and Rita Green, who even at the moment you are fascinatedly reading this are probably catching their deaths of colds by denuding themselves hourly somewhere —George Jean Nathan, The Entertainment of a Nation, 1942 • ... the streak of sentimentality and the lack of true originality which mark much of his creative writing —New Yorker, 18 Nov. 1985 • ... the bitterness and heartache that fill the world — Frank Sullivan, A Rock in Every Snowball, 1946 • If the Arab and Israeli left are to develop a common program —Noam Chomsky, Columbia Forum, Winter 1969 But both recognize that when the nouns form "a collective idea" or "a oneness of idea" (the terms are Curme's), the singular verb is appropriate—notional agreement prevails in such cases. • ... the end of all the privacy and propriety which was talked about at first —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • I think the time involved and the red tape is one of the biggest problems —Richard L. DeChant, Modern Industry, February 1967 • Brinsley, whose education and maintenance was a charge on the rates of his native county —Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds, 1939 • The name and address of the grocery was painted on the slats —E. L. Doctorow, Loon Lake, 1979 • Time and patience is necessary —Cats Mag., December 1981 • The News Service's depth and scope represents the best in American journalism —advt., cited by William Safire, N.Y. Times Mag., 1 May 1983 Curme also notes an exception to the required plural verb in a way that sounds much like Greenwood and Lowth: "when each of a number of singular noun subjects is considered separately, the verb is in the singular." He cites Emerson: • A fever, a mutilation, a cruel disappointment, a loss of wealth, a loss of friends, seems at the moment untold loss. The same principle appears to operate in these cases: • Every legislator, every doctor, and every citizen needs to recognize —Ronald Reagan, Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation, 1984 • The power of the algorithm, and the phonological approach to spelling, is strengthened when the error list is examined —Richard E. Hodges & E. Hugh Rudorf, Elementary English, May 1965 We have seen so far that in present-day English coordinate singular nouns compounded by and (or and understood) usually are followed by a plural verb. The singular verb is appropriate when the nouns form a unitary notion or when they refer to a single person (as in "My friend and colleague says"). It is also possible to intend that the singular verb be construed with each noun separately; when such a construction is intended, it should perhaps be accentuated by distributive adjectives (as each, every) or punctuation. You should not forget that some people who evaluate other people's language have no idea the singular verb can ever be used, and even those whose understanding does encompass this possibility can disagree over what is a single idea— Baker 1770 did not like "what your Justice and Honour require" and Safire in 1983 did not like "The News Service's depth and scope represents...." Readers might well be divided on the acceptability of this example: • The consultant and evaluation team has by this time converted the application task list —Datamation, February 1982 2. Joined by "or" (or "nor"). Lowth 1762 says that singular nouns joined by or take the singular verb; Priestley 1761 agrees; Leonard 1929 notes that Philip Withers in Aristarchus (1788) raked the Scottish rhetorician Hugh Blair over the coals for using a plural verb with nouns joined by or. Quirk et al. 1985 notes that or is notionally disjunctive and that the singular verb is the rule. • ... if the average man or woman was not endowed with courage —Harrison Smith, Saturday Rev., 30 Jan. 1954 • ... neither she nor any other of the book's characters has endurance —E. L. Doctorow, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 25 Aug. 1985 • In English, neither chicken nor beef nor soup has formal gender —William Safire, N.Y. Times Mag., 10 Aug. 1986 Quirk further notes that when plural nouns are so joined, the plural verb is used, and when nouns of different number are so joined, the principle of proximity tends to be called in, and the verb usually agrees with the nearest noun. Freeman 1983 makes the same point. However strong the disjunctive notion that Quirk finds attached to or (and nor) may be, there is abundant evidence from the past—and some from modern writers—that the notion of plurality of the subjects can at times overbalance that of disjunctiveness. Not only did Withers roast Blair for using plural, but Lindley Murray 1795 accompanied his rule with several counterexamples using the plural, their authors tastefully suppressed. Curme 1931 notes that the negative neither... nor often contains a plural idea under the negative; he cites several instances from the 15th century to the 20th, including these: • Neither search nor labor are necessary —Samuel Johnson, The Idler, No. 44 • Neither he nor his lady were at home —George Washington, diary, 2 Dec. 1789 • ... neither the friendship nor the sorrow seem so profound —Robert Bridges, Forum, May 1923 More recently we have some unattributed examples collected by Kilpatrick 1984 for censure: "Neither price nor menu description are a fair guide" and "Neither Johnny nor his teacher have mastered the art of writing." Curme also finds examples with or with no negative attached; these, he opines, probably come from the author's feeling that the statement applies in all cases, even though applicable to only one or two at a time. He instances these extracts: • My life or death are equal both to me —John Dryden • A drama or an epic fill the mind —Matthew Arnold, Essays in Criticism • Acting, singing, or reciting are forbidden them —H. G. Wells • What are honor or dishonor to her? —Henry James The notion determining the agreement in these examples often seems to be "this or that or both (or all)." We have similar instances among our citations: • But it's when sex or scurrility are used for their own sakes that they are in bad taste —Flannery O'Connor, letter, 10 Mar. 1956 In summary, compound singular nouns with or or nor are supposed to take a singular verb and in current use usually do. The plural verb is most likely to appear where the notion of plurality is suggested by negative construction or when the writer is thinking of "this or that or both." 3. Quasi-coordination by words like "with," "along with," "together with" or by punctuation. Quirk et al. 1985 points out that when a singular noun is joined to another by a quasi-coordinator (the term is Quirk's) like with, rather than, as well as, etc., grammatical concord calls for the singular verb. Murray 1795 implies the same view of things through his examples but does not attempt to articulate a rule. Here are some examples: • ... that tale in prose ... which was published at Christmas, with nine others, by us, has reached a second edition —Charles Lamb, letter, 7 June 1809 • ... the Petterell with the rest of the Egyptian Squadron was off the Isle of Cyprus —Jane Austen, letter, 1 Nov. 1800 Quasi-coordinators are semantically equivalent to coordinators (as and), notes Quirk, and thus notional concord can interfere with grammatical concord: • This word, with all those of the same race, are of uncertain etymology —Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, 1755 • ... A piece of cake, along with cakewalk, were expressions used by Royal Air Force Pilots —Safire 1984 Parenthetical insertions are also separate in theory and should not affect grammatical agreement. Parenthetical insertions may be set off by commas, dashes, or parentheses: • ... their management—and their companies' balance sheets—has suffered —Margaret Yao, Wall Street Jour., 11 June 1980 Commas are the weakest way of setting off a parenthetical element that is not otherwise signaled; consequently, they may be thought not to be setting off a parenthesis at all: • They suggest that it is not just the world, and civilization as we know it, that are going to the dogs — Howard 1984 You would think, however, that actual parentheses () would clearly remind a writer that the material included is not to affect the number agreement of the sentence. But real writers forget—even writers on language and grammar. • Southern Black English (and some white dialects influenced by it) have bossman as an elaboration on boss —J. L. Dillard, American Talk, 1976 • The occurrence of phenomena, criteria, strata with is or was shows up the careless writer, even though agenda (and data for some) have achieved the singular number —Barzun 1975 • The very complex gravity field of Mars (and the simple one of Venus) have been mapped —John S. Lewis, in The New Solar System, ed. J. Kelly Beatty etal., 1982 See also as well as. |
| 随便看 |
英语用法大全包含2888条英语用法指南，基本涵盖了全部常用英文词汇及语法点的翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。