Dick,
    I would probably make the same editing suggestions for your first two examples, though they might also have slipped on by. Your third and fourth examples seem OK (and somewhat familiar).
    But suppose we have these contrasts: "All members brought their dollar." "All members brought their dollars." If each member brought a single dollar, it would seem to me that the first example would make that clearer. 
    To me, meaning nuance would be the justification. "Laurel and Hardy gave their greatest performance in July." Though Laurel and Hardy are plural, you may want to make clear that it was only a single performance.  If you had a hard and fast rule, you would constrain a careful writer.
    
Craig


From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011 9:02 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: plural possessive with singular noun

Craig,

I don't think I could say, "Three people committed their life to public service" or "Four soldiers lost their life in an ambush," and as an editor or writing teacher, I would change these to the plural. But your defense causes me to consider that this usage may be gaining acceptance. I suppose I have encountered expressions like "Twenty-three Americans won a gold medal in kayaking over the years" and "Five of my coworkers were out with a cold this week." I'm not there yet, however.

Dick

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 10:22 AM, Hancock, Craig G <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
     Dick's choices are thoughtful and probably the best. But I think you could defend the choices. Each of these people is committing a single life. They are not committing each other's lives. And the gender is mixed, so "his" won't fit and "his or her" is awkward.
    "The political forces  that led the three Musketeers to commit their lives..." If the choice was a team choice and a team commitment, the plural would be even more appropriate. 
    Is this a hard and fast "rule" or is the writer able to construct a more nuanced meaning by choosing the singular? In the publshed form,I think it emphasizes that each committed a singular life. The "their" is an alternative to "his or her." 

Craig

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Dick Veit [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011 9:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: plural possessive with singular noun

Martha,

In both sentences "their" is clearly plural, and I would certainly change the nouns to "lives" and "minds." Perhaps the writers were confused by the increasing popularity of singular "their," as in "Anyone is free to do what they want to with their own life." The usefulness of singular "their" in avoiding an unwanted specification of gender has made it so widespread that it has become standard, although not without protest from a traditionalist rearguard.

In the two sentences you cite, however, "their" is indisputably plural.

Dick

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 9:26 AM, Martha Galphin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
ATEG listserv members:
 

Please comment for me on the juxtaposition of the plural “their” with the singular “life” and the singular “mind” in the following two sentences.

 

“the religious sources that inspired Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, and Mother Teresa to commit their life to serving a hurting humanity. . .” from http://www.religioustolerance.org/statbelief.htm.

 

“A majority of Republicans in key primary states said in a poll this week that they still may change their mind.” 

From the First Read Blog on December 10, 2011.


Thank you.


Martha Galphin

ESL teacher

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