tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post8687898273999860732..comments2024-02-25T20:07:56.114-06:00Comments on Mr. Verb: Ask The Verb: collective nounsMr. Verbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04048931596146402872noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-85388032276122993712009-08-30T18:17:04.558-05:002009-08-30T18:17:04.558-05:00You know? I actually find English grammar very dif...You know? I actually find English grammar very difficult because of all these rules.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-88160587659458491262008-06-20T08:57:00.000-05:002008-06-20T08:57:00.000-05:00Yeah, that's very labor intensive for sure. Still,...Yeah, that's very labor intensive for sure. Still, a big corpus would be kind of cool to have, for looking at the cline of how plural band names are. How much, for ex., does ending in /s/, like Styx, promote plural verbs? A name that's directly plural, like Herman's Hermits, probably gets singular rarely. Modest Mouse screams singular to lots of people, probably.<BR/><BR/>"The band are" yields tons -- not just UK, but NZ and Canada, etc., by the way, even filtering out ones where 'band' isn't actually the subject.Mr. Verbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04048931596146402872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-45932774078567906242008-06-20T08:51:00.000-05:002008-06-20T08:51:00.000-05:00Oops, it turns out that Gorn mentioned by Phredd i...Oops, it turns out that <I>Gorn</I> mentioned by Phredd in my comment above is not a band name.<BR/><BR/>And I found these too:<BR/><I>JZN <BR/>3 band names as subjects of sentences. 2 of them are marked plurals (The Wu Tang Clan and The Minibosses) both with plural verb. The other one is a single noun (Outkast) and also has a plural verb.<BR/><BR/>Saif <BR/>Used a band name as a subject of a sentence 4 times. Of those, all of them were singular (Mono, Tool, Dead Can Dance, DCD) and all had singular verb agreement.</I>Ed Keerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15427371337512386674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-29545770114360870322008-06-20T08:47:00.000-05:002008-06-20T08:47:00.000-05:00"The band are here" is pretty bad for me.A while b..."The band are here" is pretty bad for me.<BR/><BR/>A while back I was collecting data from usenet groups on the band names so I could tie the usage to an actual poster and see how often they varied. <BR/>This is what I got:<BR/><I>Phredd <BR/>Used a band name as a subject of a sentence 5 times. 3 of those were plural (They Might Be Giants, Hermans Hermits, and The Black Eyed Peas) and all three had plural agreement on the verb. The other 2 were singular nouns (Shonen Knife and Gorn) and they had plural agreement on the verb. <BR/><BR/>Mumblethrax <BR/>Used a band name as a subject of a sentence twice. Both were plural (Les Thugs and The Minibusses [I can't read my notes on that last one, I think that was it]) and they had plural agreement on the verb. <BR/><BR/>Kajabor <BR/>Used a band name as a subject of a sentence 3 times. One was plural (The Minutemen) with plural verb agreement. The other two were singular nouns (BOC [Blue Oyster Cult] and Shonen Knife). BOC had singular verb agreement and Shonen Knife plural.</I><BR/><BR/>I didn't get too far because it was pretty labor-intensive collecting. Maybe I should go back to it.Ed Keerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15427371337512386674noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-35180366127488114012008-06-19T20:05:00.000-05:002008-06-19T20:05:00.000-05:00Oh yeah, I was going to mention that in the post ....Oh yeah, I was going to mention that in the post ... I don't know that form at all. It might be some British deal I don't know or don't recall, but it sounds very different from the familiar types.<BR/><BR/>Thanks.Mr. Verbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04048931596146402872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-68625101463950080322008-06-19T19:56:00.000-05:002008-06-19T19:56:00.000-05:00As one of those Americans who tends to say things ...As one of those Americans who tends to say things like "Styx are..."...<BR/><BR/>"Russia have accomplished many important tasks" when I first read it, sounded wrong. Doesn't seem to me we can use the plural form with a country.<BR/><BR/>"Australia have beaten New Zealand" on the other hand, sounds fine to me, because I read it and assume we are talking about a sports team, not the country.<BR/><BR/>Rereading "Russia have accomplished..." with the idea of a national team, it sounds fine to me.Ellen Kozisekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16856539181411664278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-41635658229404613732008-06-19T12:39:00.000-05:002008-06-19T12:39:00.000-05:00Right. I myself actually vary on this point, with ...Right. I myself actually vary on this point, with a lot of band names. Do you know of Americans who say "the band are here"?<BR/><BR/>Thanks.Mr. Verbhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04048931596146402872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33159158.post-48059705465402037162008-06-19T12:31:00.000-05:002008-06-19T12:31:00.000-05:00There are few Americans who treat band names as pl...There are few Americans who treat band names as plural. I discussed this briefly <A HREF="http://watchmesleep.blogspot.com/2006/12/band-names-singular-or-plural.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>. And also see Arnold Zwicky on <A HREF="http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003879.html" REL="nofollow">LL</A>.Ed Keerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15427371337512386674noreply@blogger.com