Re: 'together vs. to gather'

--- Andreas Johansson <andjo@...> did
screeve:

> Quoting Philippe Caquant
> <herodote92@...>:
>
> > But how can we conceive verbs like "to
> > gather" or "to disperse" without the notion
> > of plural
> > ? Those verbs seem to BE plural in essence,
> > they require a plural subject.
>
> You mean the concept of number, don't you?
>
> I assume you're talking about the intransitive
> versions of those verbs?
If so, I don't see how number could enter it at
all. The act of gathering or dispersing can take
place without ever having gathered or dispersed
anything.

> As
> long as the subject is to be a count noun, the
> it pretty much has to be
> plural, it seems. But if it's mass, then the
> sg/pl contrast is simply
> transcended. "Dust gathered in the unused
> rooms" or whatever.
Also with change of voice, there. [Like "soup
cooks".]

Padraic.


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