Re: 'together vs. to gather'

Quoting Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>:


> This brings me to a question I'm trying to solve. I've
> often read that the concept "gender" (singular /
> plural) attaches logically to the subject; if there is
> a gender mark on the verb, it's only by some kind of
> "sympathy". 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? 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.

                                                         Andreas

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