Re: CHAT: R: Re: CHAT: Yorkshire/Texas (was: dl)
| From: | Padraic Brown <pbrown@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Thursday, April 26, 2001, 16:38 |
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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
>