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Re: CHAT: R: Re: CHAT: Yorkshire/Texas (was: dl)

From:Padraic Brown <pbrown@...>
Date:Thursday, April 26, 2001, 16:38
On Wed, 25 Apr 2001, Mangiat wrote:

>John wrote: > >> Andrew Chaney wrote: >> >> >> > Indeed, if memory serves, pre-civil war (1860-ish) the US was much more >> > a loose conglomerate of states rather than the unified entity it is >today. >> >> Not all that loose. But it did, interestingly, take plural agreement, >> and phrases like "The United States, or any of them" would seem very >> strange today. > > >Well, in Italian *they* still take the plural: > >gli Stati Uniti sono una repubblica >ART States United.PL are a republic.
Apparently, this is how it used to be even in the US. We never refer to the US (as a country) in the plural any more: "The United States is a republic". To say that the United States are a republic would probably get one branded as illiterate or ignorant for improper subject/verb agreement! When speaking of any group of states, or even all the states as a group of individuals, then the verb would be plural: "all the States are agreed that..." Padraic.
>Luca >