英语专业语法书答案Lecture 2 Subject-verb__ Concord.docVIP

Lecture 2 Subject-verb Concord (1) By subject-verb concord is meant agreement between subject and predicate verb in number. 2. 1 Guiding principles There are three principles guiding subject-verb concord; they are principles of grammatical concord, notional concord and proximity. 1) Grammatical concord The principle of grammatical concord refers to the rule that the verb must match its subject in number. If the subject is plural, the verb should take the plural form; if, on the other hand, the subject is singular or is a mass noun, the verb should take the singular form, eg: Both boys have their own merits. Every girl comes on time. Much effort is wasted. Difficulties arise when this principle comes into conflict with the other two principles: principle of notional concord and principle of proximity. 2) Notional concord The principle of notional concord refers to the rule that the verb can sometimes agree with the subject according to the notion of number rather than to the actual presence of the grammatical marker for that notion, eg: The government have asked the country to decide by a vote. Fifteen miles seems like a long walk to me. 3) Proximity The principle of proximity denotes agreement of the verb with a closely preceding noun phrase in preference to agreement with the head of the noun phrase that functions as subject, eg: Either my brothers or my father is coming. No one except his own supporters agree with him. Neither Julia nor I am going. Note that grammatical concord is the basic principle, but when the subject is realized by a collective noun, a coordinate form or an expression of quantity, the other two principles will have to be considered. 2.2 Problems of concord with nouns ending in -s There are quite a few nouns that end in -s but which are not countable. Some of these nouns are treated as singular, some as plural, and some either as singular or as plural. All this can be dealt with under the following headings. 1) Disease and game names en