Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: When is plural applied?

From:Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Date:Wednesday, April 14, 2004, 17:34
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