tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Jan 22 21:10:02 2003
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Re: "to be" and plurals
ja' Sangqar:
>I'm decriptivist only to a certain point. I can accept that "family" is
>treated as a singular in American English, but a plural in British English.
>But a little consistency, please: "Most" is plural and "of X" is simply a
>modifier, so "Most of X" is plural, no matter what X is, the vagaries of
>relaxed speech notwithstanding.
Apologies in advance for the nitpick, but if X is a singular thing, "most
of X" is also singular.
"Most of the pies ARE warm."
"Most of the pie IS warm."
Here's where the contention comes in.
If "family" is plural: "Most of the family ARE asleep."
If "family" is singular: "Most of the family IS asleep."
In common American usage, "family" is singular, but the phrase "most of the
family" is often a sloppy shortening of "most of the members of the
family". Thus the typical usage treats "most of the family" as plural.
The exact same situation exists in Klingon, where {qorDu'} is a singular
noun, but the usage sometimes treats it as having an elided {nuvpu'}.
-- ghunchu'wI'