Re: When is plural applied?

On Wed, Apr 14, 2004 at 09:40:44AM -0700, Gary Shannon wrote:
> The confusion extends to things which are not strictly
> "mass" but are made up of discrete components.  Even
> in English we can't decide whether to say "The
> committee HAVE decided..." or "The committee HAS
> decided..."
I wouldn't say "we can't decide" - that makes it sound like a given
'lect alternates between those forms.  In General American English
it is *always* "the committee has decided".  I had never heard collective
nouns used with plural verbs until I went to the UK - whereupon I heard it
all the time, but the first time it registered was a sports report.  It
was something like "Hampton have won the match!" which sounded *very* odd to
me.

> What we need is something like "Sim City", a computer
> program that could be programmed to simulate a bunch
> of little people running around speaking our conlang
> so we could watch evolve for a few simulated
> centuries. ;-)
Oooh.  Now *that* would be cool.  Sim Language.  You should write it.
I'd buy it. :)

-Mark