| 词组 | notional agreement, notional concord |
| 释义 | notional agreement, notional concord As Quirk et al. 1985 explains it, notional agreement (called notional concord by Quirk and others) is agreement of a verb with its subject or of a pronoun with its antecedent in accordance with the notion of number rather than with the presence of an overt grammatical marker for that notion. Another way to look at the matter is that of Roberts 1954, who explains that notional agreement is agreement based on meaning rather than form. We want to emphasize that this meaning is the meaning the expression has to the writer or speaker. Notional agreement contrasts with formal, or grammatical, agreement, in which overt markers—form-determine singular or plural agreement. Formal agreement could also be called school-grammar agreement, for it is what is taught in school. We do not know who first realized that notional agreement exists as a powerful force in English grammar, but it must be a fairly recent discovery. The 18th-century grammarians never tumbled to it, even though their examples for correction showed it being widely followed. Most school grammars are based on their 18th-century forebears and do not mention notional agreement. And many (perhaps most) usage commentators seem likewise unaware of it. But notional agreement has often been granted silent assent by normative grammarians in specific instances: formally plural nouns like news, means, and mathematics have long been accorded the privilege of taking singular verbs. So when a plural noun takes a singular verb because it is thought of as a single entity, we have notional agreement at work, but no one objects: • I don't think the barricades is an answer —James Thurber, letter, 20 Jan. 1938 • The Philippines likewise wasn't interested —Chris Pritchard, Christian Science Monitor, 23 June 1986 Likewise, when a noun ostensibly singular takes a plural verb or pronoun—as in the case of many collective and institutional nouns in British English—we have notional agreement at work once again: • Barclays Bank do not believe in regular statements, although I asked them to keep me posted —John O'Hara, letter, 8 Mar. 1964 • And so every Southern household when they bought books they bought Scott —William Faulkner, 13 May 1957, in Faulkner in the University, 1959 • The Brandt Commission have estimated that... — Christopher Terrill, Geographical Mag., May 1984 • When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another — Declaration of Independence, 1776 More troubling to the traditional grammarian are instances in which a singular noun is used as if it were a generic collective and is referred to by a plural pronoun or is matched with a plural verb: • A particular lady of quality is meant here; but every lady of quality, or no quality, are welcome to apply the character to themselves —Henry Fielding, A Journey from This World to the Next, 1743 • ... and no small blame to our vaunted society that the man in the street ... was debarred from seeing more of the world they lived in —James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922 • ... a game of donkey baseball sounds pretty dull, but people who have seen them tell me different —John O'Hara, letter, 11 Sept. 1934 • I can usually spot a liberal Democrat or a conservative Republican at one hundred feet, and I have no trouble at all when they come close enough so I can hear them talk —And More by Andy Rooney, 1982 In this sort of notional agreement the plural pronoun is much more common than the plural verb. Indefinite pronouns are heavily influenced by notional agreement, and in a peculiar way: they tend to take singular verbs but plural pronouns: • "But nobody uses it, do they?" —Doris Lessing, The Good Terrorist, 1985 • ... none has distinguished themselves —Carol Leg-gett, quoted in Publishers Weekly, 26 June 1987 • And suddenly she is there, and everybody knows, and they crane their heads backward to see her — Alice Adams, Listening to Billie, 1977 Notional agreement will also at times produce a singular verb after compound subjects joined by and and a plural verb after compound singular subjects joined by or. This is just the opposite of what formal agreement says should be the case: • ... time and chance happeneth to them all —Eccle-siastes9:ll (AV), 1611 • My admiration and affection for you both is bounded only by the Seven Seas —Groucho Marx, undated letter, in The Groucho Letters, 1967 • ... in periods when vellum, parchment, or even paper were prohibitively expensive —Lee T. Lemon, A Glossary for the Study of English, 1971 • "... a feather or a fiddle are their pursuits and their pleasures...." —Henry Fielding, Jonathan Wild, 1743 Notional agreement is mentioned at many entries in this book, because the conflict between notional and formal agreement is behind many disputed usages. (See, in particular, one of those who; they, their, them; and the various articles at agreement.) Sometimes the conflict will drive a writer to produce a sentence even more startling than those produced by purely formal or purely notional agreement: • Granted only a small fraction of lawyers actually besmirches their profession —San Francisco Chronicle, 13 Aug. 1986 |
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