Download PDFOpen PDF in browserExploring the Patterns of Verbal Agreement of Collective Noun-Headed Subjects in a Parsed Corpus of Present-Day English10 pages•Published: February 23, 2017AbstractThis study explores verbal agreement variation with collective noun-headed subjects taking plural of-dependents in a set of data retrieved from a parsed version of the corpus of Global Web-based English (GloWbE). The results show how syntactic distance between the subject and the verb (and also the complexity of the modifier(s) of the of-PP) reduces the influence that these plural of-PPs exert on the verb, thus lowering the rate of plural agreement.Keyphrases: agreement, collective noun, morphologically (un)marked plurality, of dependency, syntactic complexity, syntactic distance In: Chelo Vargas-Sierra (editor). Professional and Academic Discourse: an Interdisciplinary Perspective, vol 2, pages 325-334.
|