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Re: USAGE: NATLANG: I've Gots An English Question

From:Thomas Leigh <thomas@...>
Date:Monday, June 23, 2003, 14:58
Steg:
> >So then what dialect of English *adds* final |-s|s where
Standard
> >American says they don't belong?
Doug Dee:
> I seem to recall learning that in Scotland & Northern England,
final -s
> traditionally appears on 3rd person plural present tense
verbs, in
> accordance with a rule I can't remember but which someone here
is
> sure to explain.
In Scots, plural noun subjects take a singular verb, e.g. "the bairns is" (English "the children are"). Plural pronoun subjects take a plural verb, e.g. "they are" (not *"they is"). Thomas

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John Leland <leland@...>Now What Do I Do with It?