336:
Choose one (the traditional rule for most languages has been to treat mixed groups as male; some modern rules, on the other hand, call for randomly choosing one sex or the other, alternating choosing male and female in successive similar circumstances, or even for simply choosing the female gender in
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the verb only for stylistic reasons; or even as a mandatory requirement, in languages with V-S-O or V-O-S word order and a strongly fixed word order. These languages often use different strategies for handling subjects after vs. before the verb: for example, tending to prefer an "agree with the
329:
Closest agreement: Simply agree with the constituent noun phrase that is closest to the verb, and ignore the rest. This generally applies only to subject-verb agreement; pronominal agreement is by its nature long-distance, and so the concept of "closest" makes less sense in this
31:
between the subject and other entities (verbs, pronouns, etc.). These issues also occur with compound noun phrases of all sorts, but the problems are most acute with compound subjects because of the large number of types of agreement occurring with such subjects.
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Multiple strategies have been used to handle both compound subjects in general and category disagreement between/among the coordinate members of the subject. Languages often differ in which strategies they use. Among the strategies are:
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are coordinated. The tendency, in such cases, is to rewrite the sentences to avoid the conjunction: e.g. "Sylvia and I each have our own car, and one of us is planning to sell their car". This still has a compound subject using
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General agreement: Consider the total set of entities involved, work out their properties, and assign a pronoun accordingly. (E.g. if the set of entities includes two women referred to in the third person, and the language has
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Use a construction (e.g. "he or she", "his or her", "our(s)") that captures both or all values of the disagreeing property. Often this is considered awkward and to be avoided.
241:. In many European languages, for example, a standard problem occurs with mixed-gender compound subjects. This problem does not appear in English, because
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closest phrase" strategy with a following subject, for pragmatic reasons, even when an "agree with the whole" strategy is used in other circumstances.
412:
Children are often taught in school as a matter of politeness that they should always order oneself after any others in a compound subject and use
70:
generally take a plural verb. However, there are exceptions. When compound subjects are thought of as a single unit, a singular verb is used, e.g.
97:" to get around the "his or her" problem. This could be avoided with a further rewrite: "Either Sylvia will sell her car, or I will sell mine."
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for an argument of a verb when occurring directly before a finite verb. On the other hand, in compound subjects in informal speech,
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An additional concern in
English is that there are special rules for pronouns in compound subjects. Although English has
556:
322:, as in Arabic, then the group's properties would be "dual number, female, third person", with corresponding pronoun
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If using "general agreement" and there is a disagreement among properties (e.g. some male, some female), either:
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284:
In addition, some languages allow subjects to follow verbs: either optionally for stylistic reasons, as in
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274:
24:
43:, the agreement rules are generally unambiguous, but sometimes tricky. For example, the compound subject
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55:
car", not "your car", "their car", etc.). In languages with more extensive subject-verb agreement (e.g.
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526:
278:
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to form a single, longer noun phrase. Compound subjects cause many difficulties in compliance with
85:
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i.e. either one of them will sell that one's own car, or one of them will sell someone else car
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has gender as well as person and number agreement on its verbs, and more specifically in its
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i.e. one of us will sell the car he or she owns, assuming that I am male and Sylvia is female
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296:("Now are entering John, Jim, and their wives"); as the normal state of affairs, as in
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is not a living characteristic of the spoken language, and hence the case-based terms
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ambiguous between whether we own two cars jointly, or each owns one car individually
495:
21:
80:, the rules are often ill-defined, especially when two elements that differ in
63:), the verb agreement is clearly revealed as also being first-person plural.
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Additional concerns appear in compound subjects in languages other than
218:. Remove the difficulty by changing the auxiliary verb to just "will".)
436:, when adopted by speakers it typically is generalized to compound
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i.e. one of us will sell the car he owns, assuming that I am male
281:, there is gender agreement with third-person plural subjects.
489:
Halliday, M.A.K & Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M (2004).
482:
Everaert, M.; van
Riemsdijk, H.; Goedemans, R. (eds) 2006.
401:(possibly because of the lack of direct agreement between
141:"Either my sisters are coming to visit, or my mother is.")
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As shown in the examples, if the subjects are joined by
385:) are misleading. In general, in the spoken language,
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i.e. they jointly own the car, one of them will sell it
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as the conjunction, and uses "semi-informal" "generic
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Peanut butter and jelly is available in the cafeteria.
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i.e. we jointly own the car, one of us will sell it
196:
i.e. we jointly own the car, together we'll sell it
188:: if the "someone else" has just been mentioned.)
158:are going to sell your (you guys', your own) car.
432:. Although intended specifically for compound
224:are/am/is? going to sell their(??) own car. (
8:
504:A student's introduction to English grammar.
51:, taking appropriate pronominal agreement ("
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145:My mother or father is coming to visit.
496:An introduction to functional grammar
7:
355:case distinctions in pronouns (e.g.
277:and in the more conservative spoken
502:Huddleston, R.; Pullum, K. (2005).
214:are/am/is? going to sell our car. (
20:consists of two or more individual
440:, leading to alternations such as
14:
499:. Hodder Arnold, London, England.
486:, Volumes I–V, Blackwell, London.
484:The Blackwell companion to syntax
399:Johnny and me are coming tomorrow
204:are going to sell his? own car. (
397:occurs in this position, e.g.
347:Additional concerns in English
1:
424:and in a compound object use
174:is going to sell their car. (
164:are going to sell our cars. (
194:are going to sell our car. (
152:are going to sell their car.
66:Compound subjects joined by
39:compound subjects joined by
506:Cambridge University Press.
184:is going to sell his car. (
47:is treated equivalently to
573:
389:is the default form, but
245:is genderless. But e.g.
137:is/are coming to visit. (
261:similarly has masculine
135:My sisters or my mother
542:Subject verb agreement
491:Subject, actor, theme
127:is coming to visit. (
29:grammatical agreement
527:Subjective (grammar)
121:are coming to visit.
466:"Compound Subjects"
292:or occasionally in
557:Syntactic entities
442:between me and you
86:grammatical number
82:grammatical gender
517:Subject (grammar)
446:between you and I
304:, where subjects
275:literary language
115:went to the park.
109:went up the hill.
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537:English pronouns
532:Grammatical case
522:Object (grammar)
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469:
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366:grammatical case
320:grammatical dual
298:Classical Arabic
269:. In addition,
233:General concerns
18:compound subject
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265:vs. feminine
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119:John and Jill
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107:Jack and Jill
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422:I and Johnny
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156:You and John
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125:John or Jill
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22:noun phrases
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428:instead of
420:instead of
337:all cases).
222:Sylvia or I
212:Sylvia or I
182:John or Jim
172:John or Jim
129:Better with
113:Haley and I
25:coordinated
452:References
381:(e.g. for
373:(e.g. for
202:John and I
192:John and I
162:John and I
150:John and I
139:Rewrite as
416:, saying
279:varieties
131:"either")
45:you and I
551:Category
511:See also
434:subjects
101:Examples
438:objects
306:precede
294:English
259:Spanish
239:English
57:Spanish
37:English
377:) vs.
324:humatā
286:German
271:Arabic
247:French
61:Arabic
330:case.
302:Irish
290:Latin
267:ellas
263:ellos
255:elles
95:their
444:vs.
405:and
359:vs.
300:and
243:they
35:For
493:in
409:).
407:are
363:),
288:,
251:ils
91:and
84:or
68:and
59:or
53:our
41:and
553::
448:.
403:me
395:me
387:me
383:me
361:me
326:.)
257:;
78:or
49:we
16:A
468:.
414:I
391:I
375:I
357:I
228:)
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198:)
178:)
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