That's what we used to think, but I'm an old guy.
I'm going away on vacation, so no one will hear from me for a couple of
weeks.
Jeff Glauner
Associate Professor of English
Park University, Box 1303
8700 River Park Drive
Parkville MO 64152
[log in to unmask]
http://www.park.edu/jglauner/index.htm
<http://www.park.edu/jglauner/index.htm>
-----Original Message-----
From: Sophie Johnson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 7:10 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Help with verbal as subject
Thanks, Jeff. But I'm still thinking of your: `It is dangerous to allow
semantics to rub noses with syntax'. To my mind, once they've rubbed noses
they jolly well have to marry!
Sophie
----- Original Message -----
From: Glauner, Jeff <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 6:23 AM
Subject: Re: Help with verbal as subject
Yes. Call it a nominal subject instead of a noun subject.
Sophie,
Your last sentence is a reasonable way of stating it.
"Might one say that `is' or `are' agreements in these context are the
morphological markers that reveal whether the subject is meant to be plural
or singular?"
This is one reason that equating grammar with syntax is not entirely
accurate. Grammar also dips into morphology. Of course, these verbs are
more than morphological markers, but they are that along with everything
else linking verbs can be. It might be more accurate, though, to say that
they display certain morphological markers in these cases. Whether these
markers actually "reveal" the singular or plural intent is not absolute.
Consider, for instance, the differences between British and American
interpretations of singular and plural with group nouns (e.g., "The crew is
. . ." or "The crew are . . . ").
Note that your insertion of "[both]" seems to imply that we are more
trusting of semantic signifiers than of morphological markers. That would
make sense considering the limitations of the English morphological system.
Jeff Glauner
Associate Professor of English
Park University, Box 1303
8700 River Park Drive
Parkville MO 64152
[log in to unmask]
http://www.park.edu/jglauner/index.htm
<http://www.park.edu/jglauner/index.htm>
-----Original Message-----
From: Sophie Johnson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 9:14 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Help with verbal as subject
Jeff, how does this work: if `Learning and assimilating new information' is
a noun subject in which `and' is a tautologous usage, then we have a
singular noun subject; if `and' is a cumulative usage then we have a plural
subject?
I now think I was not entitled to assume, as I did earlier, that `and' in
this sentence is necessarily a tautologous usage. Such an assumption would
not come as readily in these sort of sentences: `Learning and forgetting new
information is always easier when the information is presented in a familiar
pattern'; `Learning and forgetting new information are [both] easier when
...'.
Might one say that `is' or `are' agreements in these context are the
morphological markers that reveal whether the subject is meant to be plural
or singular?
Sophie
----- Original Message -----
From: Glauner, Jeff <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 2:37 AM
Subject: Re: Help with verbal as subject
Singular is correct. The entire constituent, "Learning and assimilating new
information," is a gerund phrase (a nominal nonfinite verb phrase) serving
as the singular subject of the sentence.
Notice what happens, however, when we delete " . . . new information . . .
." Now we have two separate gerund phrases as compound subjects and the
verb reflects this by changing to "are."
"Learning and assimilating are always easier when the information is
presented in a familiar pattern."
But we have entered a fuzzy area here. It could be argued that "Learning
and assimilating" is still a singular act based upon its meaning in the
original sentence. It is dangerous to allow semantics to rub noses with
syntax. We rediscover that nothing is as simple as it seems.
Jeff Glauner
Associate Professor of English
Park University, Box 1303
8700 River Park Drive
Parkville MO 64152
[log in to unmask]
http://www.park.edu/jglauner/index.htm
<http://www.park.edu/jglauner/index.htm>
-----Original Message-----
From: Carolyn Kinslow [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, July 30, 2001 8:23 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Help with verbal as subject
We have a disagreement about subject/verb agreement, and I would like the
expert opinions of the members of this list. The sentence generating the
disagreement reads,
"Learning and assimilating new information is always easier when the
information is presented in a familiar pattern."
One camp claims the singular verb, is, is correct; the other camp maintains
that the verb should be plural. How can I explain this construction?
Carolyn