第2讲-主谓一致

1) Disease and game names ending in -s
❖ Names of disease ending in -s are mostly treated as singular.
▪ arthritis (关节炎) bronchitis (支气管炎)， diabetes（糖尿病） mumps (腮腺炎) phlebitis (静脉炎)
Good morning!
Subject-verb Concord zhaoyingfly
2.0 Introduction
❖ Concord means “agreement” between subject and predicate verb in person and number.
❖ 在英语中，句子的主语和谓语动词之间必 须在人称和数上保持一致关系，即主谓一 致关系。
e.g.：
❖ My glasses are broken. Please fix them for me.
❖ Your shorts are torn. You’d better change them.
❖ The scissors are very blunt. Give me a new pair please.
❖ Exceptions of tidings (information) can be used both ways.
▪ Good tidings have cheered them up. ▪ The tidings has come a little too late.
❖ There are also nouns such as barracks, means, headquarters, species, series, works etc. whose singular and plural number share the same form. These nouns are treated as plural when used in the plural sense or vice versa. 单 复数同形的名词作主语，要根据意义来决定谓语 的形式。
❖ Exceptions of whereabouts(行踪), dramatics (舞台艺术) etc. may be treated either as plural or as singular.
❖ Nouns ending in -ings such as clippings, surroundings, earnings, diggings, etc are generally used as plural.
▪ Neither my wife nor I am going to the ceremony.
▪ No one except his own supporters agree with him.
Note：
❖ Generally speaking the grammatical principle applies to formal English. The notional principle and the principle of proximity on the other hand play an auxiliary role in supporting the grammatical principle in informal English.
▪ Measles are sometimes caused by a tapeworm(绦虫).
▪ Rickets is/are caused by malnutrition (营养不 良).
Game names ending in -s
❖ Game names ending in -s are generally used as singular. Such as billiards (台球)， bowls (保 龄球)，dominos (多米诺骨牌戏)，draughts (国 际跳棋)等。
▪ Acoustics (声学) is a branch of physics. ▪ The acoustics (音响效果) in the new concert
hall are faultless.
3) Geographical names ending in -s
❖ Geographical names (地理名称) such as the names of archipelagos（岛屿） mountain ranges（山脉） straits（海峡）and falls（瀑布） are generally used as plural except for a few treated as singular when used as country names（国名）.
2.3 Problems of concord with collective nouns as subject
▪ The audience were brought to their feet at the sight of superman in his wheelchair.
▪ Fifteen miles seems like a long walk to me.
Proximity
❖ It 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.
2.1 Principles of Concord
❖grammatical principle ❖notional principle ❖principle of proximity
Grammatical concord
❖ It refers to the rule that the verb must match its subject in number and in person.
▪ In early January 1976 the Netherlands (荷兰) was hit by its worst storm.
4) Other nouns ending in -s
❖ Names for things made of two parts such as scissors pincers etc. are usually used as plural. But when they are preceded by such unit nouns as a pair of and two pairs of the number forBiblioteka Baidu of the following verb is generally determined by the number marker of the unit noun.( compasses圆规 pants裤子 pliers老虎钳 shorts短裤 spectacles眼镜 stockings长统袜 tongs夹 子、钳子 trousers)
2) Subject names ending in -ics
❖ Names of subjects (学科名称) ending in -ics are generally singular nouns but some such nouns are treated as plural when used in other senses than subject names.
❖ 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 (topics).
▪ Everybody was happy with the decision. ▪ Both boys have their own merits.
Notional concord
❖ As the name suggests it is concerned with the subject-verb concord on the semantic basis i.e. 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.
❖ There is a pair of sunglasses lying on the floor.
❖ Nouns usually taking plural endings such
as archives arms and clothes are
generally used as plural. ( goods greens 植物) e.g. The archives(档案馆) of this society are kept in the basement（地下 室）.
▪ A headquarters was set up to direct the operation.
▪ Their headquarters are in Paris.
▪ There are 166 species of butterflies.
▪ This species of rose is very rare.
▪ The Himalayas (喜马拉雅山) have a magnificent variety of plant and animal life.
▪ The Straits of Gibraltar (直布罗陀海峡) have not lost their strategic importance.
▪ Diabetes is a common disease.
Exceptions:
❖ A few such names as measles (麻疹) and rickets（软骨病）can be used either as singular or as plural. e.g.
▪ Measles is a dangerous disease for pregnant women.
▪ Billiards is not exclusively (专门地) a men’s game. ▪ Bowls is Mr. Black’s favorite recreation.
❖ Exception of cards is usually treated as plural.
▪ Cards are not allowed here.