Er...yes I meant them as a singular idea...
*NM*
Dark Knight Send a noteboard - 05/10/2011 08:47:34 PM
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Since I noticed you both (in effect) cited the same objection: Subject/verb agreement. I (perhaps incorrectly) took "Twitter and texting" to be examples of a single general phenomenon suspected to have "eroded proper grammar for today's youths" and so thought nothing of introducing the question with "has." My logic is expounded at better length <a href="http://grammar.about.com/od/c/g/comsubjecterm.htm">here</a>, in an About.com entry written by one Richard Norquist, whose bio there states him to be a Doctor of English with 35 years experience teaching composition:
Normally a subject made up of more than one element takes a plural verb ("The President and Congress are at loggerheads"), although occasionally, when the elements add up to the same idea, the verb is singular ("The wear and tear on the car was tremendous"). But focus an eye on these compound subjects followed by singular verbs, all of which are correct:
Everything in the cupboard and everything on the table was smashed.
Everybody favoring the plan and everybody leaning toward it was interviewed.
Nobody in my house and nobody on my street has been robbed.
Anyone who has read the book and anybody who has even heard of its ideas agrees with the author.
Strange, eh? . . . The explanation would seem to be that in each instance the second 'particularizer' is superfluous and has no grammatical efect; it could just as well be omitted, and in some of the instances the and would change to or. . . .
"An odd quirk that proves nothing aside from the fact that some rules do have exceptions."
(Theodore Bernstein, Miss Thistlebottom's Hobgoblins, 1971)
Bolding is mine, for emphasis (and yes, I noticed that he mispelled "effect." Several of the examples here, the first especially, are similar to the language in question eight: "Everything on the table" and "everything in the cupboard" are clearly and wholly distinct groups, but a singular verb is used to reference the singular destruction of both groups.
In the examples used in the quoted piece, you are talking about two distinct groups, but the key is that they both begin with the same qualifier, the same key to the subject -- everything on the table and everything in the cupboard. They are expanded into two groups, but they are part of the same root -- everything. It could just as easily be stated as "everything on the table and in the cupboard was smashed." The verb, "was", depends on the true subject, which is "everything", which is singular. In that case, "everything" has been expanded into two sub-groups, but they are still part of the same singular subject. It is the same with the other examples he used.
In the case of "wear and tear", that has come to be regarded as singular simply because they are always used together, they are partners in crime, they form a singular idea, as he noted. "Twitter and texting" are not at that point where they would generally be accepted by society as representing a singular idea, regardless of whether or not DK meant them as a singular idea.
That's my take, anywho.
Formerly Mat Bloody Cauthon on Wotmania, blessed be its name
Grammar junkies
05/10/2011 06:46:31 PM
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I'm not always sure that I'm correct, but....
05/10/2011 07:04:13 PM
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I didn't see any errors
05/10/2011 07:24:27 PM
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Must ... have ... grammar.
05/10/2011 07:53:34 PM
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For you and Tom as well, the same question about question eight.
05/10/2011 08:33:39 PM
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Tom can probably give you actual terms and correct rules, but here's my take on it.
05/10/2011 08:43:47 PM
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Er...yes I meant them as a singular idea...
*NM*
05/10/2011 08:47:34 PM
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Use them together, and only together, for fifteen years and we can discuss this again. *NM*
05/10/2011 09:32:30 PM
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That makes sense as far as it goes.
05/10/2011 09:02:42 PM
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But do you actually regard them that way?
05/10/2011 09:08:36 PM
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Yeah, pretty much.
05/10/2011 09:25:18 PM
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No, Joel. You're just wrong. Again. Get used to it. We have.
05/10/2011 09:31:21 PM
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I can live with being wrong, at least in the sense of technical error.
05/10/2011 10:06:30 PM
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Let's just pare this down to the bare bones.
06/10/2011 01:37:30 AM
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He made a mistake that I did not recognize as a mistake because I read his words as he intended.
06/10/2011 04:43:39 AM
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You bring up a point that I was researching the other day
05/10/2011 08:53:40 PM
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You guys mean a hyphen, not a dash.
05/10/2011 09:00:25 PM
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You're right of course!
05/10/2011 09:13:44 PM
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I frequently am.
05/10/2011 09:16:38 PM
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So I've noticed.
05/10/2011 09:19:38 PM
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Achtung! Grammatik! :insert Nazi-saluting smiley as the Wehrmacht marches by:
05/10/2011 08:10:45 PM
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Good poll, especially for this site.
05/10/2011 08:11:10 PM
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Re: Grammar junkies
05/10/2011 08:33:06 PM
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People should talk in a way that can be understood, else they are not communicating.
05/10/2011 09:17:37 PM
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Re: "everyone's". ~winky~ *NM*
05/10/2011 09:22:18 PM
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Is it time for my lecture on superfluous apostrophes again?
05/10/2011 09:43:47 PM
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Unsurprisingly, I don't really agree with you at all on this point. :p
05/10/2011 10:29:59 PM
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I do not really think I am "right" on this one so much as "not wrong."
06/10/2011 12:01:36 AM
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But contradictions are inherent in the entire English language!
06/10/2011 01:25:39 AM
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Ghoti. Also, this is why Rebekah and don't argue this any more.
*NM*
06/10/2011 04:44:42 AM
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Sure, but not deliberate ones created by grammarians who know better.
06/10/2011 05:40:58 AM
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I'm going to listen to the others.
06/10/2011 06:17:18 AM
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Like I say, I appreciate exceptions when justified (and again, only claiming to be "not wrong." )
06/10/2011 07:26:18 AM
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But you are wrong
06/10/2011 02:17:40 PM
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I disagree.
07/10/2011 12:15:14 AM
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How utterly unsurprising
07/10/2011 02:21:38 PM
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"We want to be nothing if not persistent."
07/10/2011 02:39:19 PM
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Doesn't matter.
07/10/2011 03:12:14 PM
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Perhaps not, but it should, and I am not above being a lone voice crying in the wilderness.
08/10/2011 05:17:35 PM
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What.
06/10/2011 06:17:41 PM
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Those cases are not the same, because those words are already possessive in their own right.
06/10/2011 10:52:06 PM
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if you have trouble understanding my post it is more likely do to typing skills than grammar
05/10/2011 09:31:42 PM
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Likely so; I have the same problem, but usually when writing by hand.
05/10/2011 09:53:08 PM
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#1) I do not use NetSpeak while playing games, texting or using social media.
05/10/2011 11:34:12 PM
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What about NateSpeak? *NM*
06/10/2011 04:01:08 PM
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I did use that once to tell the story of you and CNRedDragon going to see Ice Princess. *NM*
07/10/2011 01:46:50 AM
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I freebase split infinitives on a regular basis.
06/10/2011 01:53:36 PM
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