That is my point exactly, Johanna: verbs are not singular or plural.

But I frequently hear people call them such.

Christine


-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Johanna Rubba
Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2004 8:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Singular or Plural

It's not the verb that is plural or singular, but the subject. The verb
is marked to agree with the subject; the subject controls the verbal
marking, not vice versa. This is just like requiring a pronoun to agree
with its antecedent or an adjective to agree with its noun in Spanish.
It's not the adjective that's plural; it's the word it modifies.

Many languages (e.g., Modern Aramaic) also incorporate object suffixes
which will agree with the real-world objects in number (and gender, and
case ...) It's quite a feat to cook up an Aramaic verb! Certain tense
forms have to have subject and object markers that agree in person,
number, gender, and case with their antecedents.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
English Department, California Polytechnic State University
One Grand Avenue  • San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
Tel. (805)-756-2184  •  Fax: (805)-756-6374 • Dept. Phone.  756-2596
• E-mail: [log in to unmask] •      Home page:
http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface
at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/

To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at:
     http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html
and select "Join or leave the list"

Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/