| 词组 | collective nouns |
| 释义 | collective nouns 1. Subject-verb agreement. Collective nouns—singular nouns that stand for a number of persons or things considered as a group)—have had the characteristic of being used with both singular and plural verbs since Middle English. The principle involved—referred to elsewhere in this book as notional agreement—is simple: when the group is considered as a unit, the singular verb is used; when it is thought of as a collection of individuals, the plural verb is used. All grammarians and usage commentators agree on the basic principle. Chambers 1985 points out that one class of collective nouns—those like baggage, cutlery, dinnerware that stand for a collection of inanimate objects—can be omitted from consideration; they are regularly singular: • Your luggage has been sent to Kansas City by mistake. Those commentators who mention British-American differences agree in general that singular verbs are more common in American English and plural verbs more common in British English. Beyond this generality it can be unsafe to venture; where notional agreement operates, there are no absolutes. For instance, Bryant 1962 states that British usage employs the plural verb with government: • In effect the Government are facing three distinct crises —David Basnett, The Times (London), 17 Dec. 1973 But though the plural verb with government is usual, it is not universal: • ... the Government delegates to the BBC responsibility for ... —BBC Year Book 1952 • ... the Government has already made it clear —The Economist, 15 Feb. 1975 The difference in British and American usage may be illustrated by the word family. While Mittins et al. 1970 report a surprising amount of resistance in their survey to "his family are in Bournemouth," our evidence suggests that the plural verb is quite a bit more common in British English: • I hope all the family are in a convalescent State — Lord Byron, letter, 12 Nov. 1805 • The family were not consumptive —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • ... an economist whose family are prominent — Manchester Guardian Weekly, 28 Aug. 1936 • ... the Royal Family take the train —Carol Wright, In Britain, June 1974 • ... but his family were respectable upper-crust — Gabriele Annan, Times Literary Supp., 14 Mar. 1980 • My family are nearly all gone —Sir John Gielgud, in People, 19 Oct. 1981 But there is also singular use: • ... to determine where, for legal purposes, a family ends —Edward Jenks, The Book of English Law, 5th ed., 1953 • The modern family is increasingly to be viewed as the family of procreation —Peter G. Hollowell, The Lorry Driver, 1968 Quirk et al. 1985 say that in British English the plural verb is more frequently used with collective nouns in speaking than in writing. In American English, the singular verb is more common: • The family was miserably poor —John Gunther, Inside Europe, rev. ed., 1937 • The family includes a poodle —TV Guide, 23 Apr. 1954 • The family was a closely-knit one —Current Biography, September 1964 • A last family is leaving —Alice Mattison, New Yorker, 10 June 1985 But the plural verb is not at all rare: • His family were enormously wealthy —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925 • ... when her family come to grief —Time, 26 Feb. 1951 • ... checked with her family, who prefer the latter spelling —Erich Segal, TV. Y. Times Book Rev., 3 June 1984 Two areas often singled out to illustrate British-American differences are politics and sports: Quirk and Harper 1985, for instance, mention both. In British English terms like Parliament, public, government, committee are frequently used with plural verbs; the same (and similar) terms in American English are more likely to be used with singular verbs. The contrast in sports comes when the name of a city (or country) is used as the name of a team. A British headline might read: Liverpool triumph over Swansea while its American counterpart might read: • Oakland defeats Baltimore 2. Pronoun agreement. Collective nouns are often referred to by plural pronouns, though singular in form. This characteristic, too, is ascribable to the operation of notional agreement. A handful of examples: • The congregation rose and settled again on its benches —James Joyce, Dubliners, 1914 • ... the crowd surged to its feet —Time, 21 June 1948 • ... a majority of the Committee expressed its preference —G. H. C. Bodenhausen, UNESCO Copyright Bulletin, No. 3, 1951 • ... Laurel's government moved to northern Luzon and in March they were flown to Tokyo —Current Biography, June 1953 • ... the party, who at his suggestion, now seated themselves —Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814 • The main difficulty with the South is that they are living eighty years behind the times —Harry S. Truman, letter, 18 Aug. 1948 • ... challenge which now confronts the faculty. They have undertaken —James B. Conant, President's Report, Harvard University, 1945 Copperud 1970 lists a half dozen commentators who agree that writers should take care to match their pronouns and verbs, singular with singular, plural with plural. Evidence shows that writers have sometimes adhered to this policy and sometimes ignored it. Here are some examples of the approved practice. Plural verb, plural pronoun: • The Norton family have featured some of the greatest entertainers of all time at their park —Thomas J. Smith, Yankee, July 1968 • ... why a democratic people need to know something more about their legislative proceedings —J. R. Wiggins, Nieman Reports, July 1952 • One thing the God-fearing Scandinavian and German stock of Wisconsin obviously like about their senior senator —Peter Ross Range, Cosmopolitan, December 1978 Singular verb, singular pronoun: • ... the majority does not necessarily trust in the correctness of its own language —Finegan 1980 • ... an enemy which is as pitiful as it is vicious — N.Y. Herald Tribune Book Rev., 28 Sept. 1952 An appeal lies to a Personnel Security Review Board It in turn makes recommendations — Ralph S. Brown, Jr., Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November 1953 When verb and pronouns do not match, it is usually that a plural pronoun is being used after a singular verb; the reverse mismatch is highly unlikely. A collective noun with singular verb and plural pronoun exhibits the same pattern as many indefinite pronouns (see agreement: indefinite pronouns): • ... no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability —Samuel Johnson, preface to the Dictionary, 1755 • The entire diplomatic class has, in my forty years of acquaintance with them —Henry Adams, letter, 1 Feb. 1900 • ... a cross-section of the public is interviewed each day about their listening — BBC Year Book 1952 • What industry now fears is that the government will move into their plants —Newsweek, 18 Aug. 1952 3. A collective noun followed by of and a plural noun (Curme 1931 calls this a "partitive group") follows the same notional agreement as collective nouns in general. Thus we find James J. Kilpatrick (Pittsburgh Press Sunday Mag., 11 Aug. 1985) expressing approval of the use of a plural verb in a sentence beginning "A rash of stories"—the notion is clearly plural. Here are a few other examples: • Whether the higher order of seraphim illuminati ever sneer? —Charles Lamb, letter, 28 July 1798 • ... the only lodge of Christians who never try to get us barred off the newsstands —H. L. Mencken, letter, in The Intimate Notebooks of George Jean Nathan • The great majority of marriages that go on the rocks are those contracted in earlier years —George Jean Nathan, Testament of a Critic, 1931 When the idea of oneness or wholeness is stressed, the verb is singular: • The bulk of the stories by new writers is fairly dull —Valentine Cunningham, Times Literary Supp., 13 Aug. 1976 4. See also agreement: organizations considered as collective nouns; agreement, subject-verb: a bunch of the boys; notional agreement, notional concord. |
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