Which is correct?

@JTT,

Quote:

…... as well as is possible considering how much I do know you.
[/quoteWhy thank you JTT, I'm flattered

[quote]For a mere 20 bucks…..you have been badly cheated…...you could buy...Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage….. instead of just repeating some old canard…….?

Great idea, considering how badly I've been educated. I'll be on the lookout for it

1 Reply

@bgartenberg,

I want to thank everyone for their input. Kindly allow me to share feedback I received from other sources, which incidentally, seems consistent with your postings. Apparently, the traditional rule is that, as a singular noun, it takes on a singular verb... in this instance "is" rather than "are." Yet, the newer philosophy is that it could also be plural since the object is plural (in this case, "statements"). So, either is correct.

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I want to thank everyone for their input. Kindly allow me to share feedback I received from other sources, which incidentally, seems consistent with your postings. Apparently, the traditional rule is that, as a singular noun, it takes on a singular verb... in this instance "is" rather than "are." Yet, the newer philosophy is that it could also be plural since the object is plural (in this case, "statements"). So, either is correct.

2 Replies

@bgartenberg,

bgartenberg wrote:

Apparently, the traditional rule is that, as a singular noun, it takes on a singular verb... in this instance "is" rather than "are."

There is no such "traditional rule", only a venerable error.

Quote:

Yet, the newer philosophy is that it could also be plural since the object is plural (in this case, "statements"). So, either is correct.

None has been used for both singular and plural for over 1000 years.

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@bgartenberg,

Quote:

Apparently, the traditional rule is that, as a singular noun, it takes ... .

You have to understand what "traditional rule" means. For the last couple of centuries there has been a mindless repetition of prescriptions, not rules, that has been pretty much the grand total of what passed as the study of English grammar. These were made up rules that had nothing to do with the English language.

Quote:

Grammar Puss

...

To whom I say: Maven, shmaven! [Kibbitzers] and [nudniks] is more like it. For here are the remarkable facts. Most of the prescriptive rules of the language mavens make no sense on any level. They are bits of folklore that originated for screwball reasons several hundred years ago and have perpetuated themselves ever since. For as long as they have existed, speakers have flouted them, spawning identical plaints about the imminent decline of the language century after century. All the best writers in English have been among the flagrant flouters. The rules conform neither to logic nor tradition, and if they were ever followed they would force writers into fuzzy, clumsy, wordy, ambiguous, incomprehensible prose, in which certain thoughts are not expressible at all. Indeed, most of the "ignorant errors" these rules are supposed to correct display an elegant logic and an acute sensitivity to the grammatical texture of the language, to which the mavens are oblivious.

READ ON AT,

http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1994_01_24_thenewrepublic.html

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So, it's taken dozens of posts to elucidate a simple fact: "none" can be plural as well as singular.

Don't tell me none of you knew that. Wink

1 Reply

@McTag,

Now you see the harm these silly prescriptions have wrought.

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@bgartenberg,

In defense of Berg, S., and myself Webster defines "none" as "not any," "no one," or "not one" followed by "…with a plural verb is the common construction ," the implication being this usage not necessarily correct or logical

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

Quote:

In defense of Berg, S., and myself Webster defines "none" as "not any," "no one," or "not one" followed by "…with a plural verb is the common construction ," the implication being this usage not necessarily correct or logical

I read some of the "implications" you've ascribed to language, Dale. I'd say that a quote and a link are in order.

1 Reply

@JTT,

Quote:

Dale. I'd say that a quote and a link are in order.

As my approach JTT is largely one of opinion or interpretation I leave as it stands with the hope of someone concurring, or clarification

In accordance with the general idea that nothing is entirely anything while everything is partly something else, I maintain that continued use by large numbers of the humanoid doesn't make it right

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

You just related something from Websters, Dale.

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@dalehileman,

Quote:

You just related something from Websters, Dale.

Thanks JTT but apparently you're 'way ahead of a doddering old man. What was it that I related and where will I find it in which Webster's

1 Reply

@dalehileman,

Quote:

In defense of Berg, S., and myself Webster defines "none" as "not any," "no one," or "not one" followed by "…with a plural verb is the common construction ,"

So there it was. "Not any" with a plural verb.
Seek, and ye shall find.

1 Reply

@McTag,

Quote:

"Not any" with a plural verb.

Alas Mac, point well taken

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@bgartenberg,

Quote:

Which is correct?

"None of the above statements are accurate."

"None of the above statements is accurate."

"As mentioned is not accurate."

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@bgartenberg,

I don't even get this whole debate, "statements" is the simple subject. "Statements" is the thing doing something (being correct), and "none" is simply modifying that (making it so that all the statements are incorrect). But, to get back to the question, "are" is the correct verb.

0 Replies

Which is correct?

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