Comments on: Synesis and Garden State places http://blog.wordnik.com/synesis-and-garden-state-places Connecting people with meaning. Wed, 09 May 2012 19:58:41 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Grant Barrett http://blog.wordnik.com/synesis-and-garden-state-places/comment-page-1#comment-348 Grant Barrett Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:45:14 +0000 http://blog.wordnik.com/?p=218#comment-348 Jeremy, what about these? -c- There's a dozen ninjas on the patio. -d- There's two dozen ninjas on the patio. Jeremy, what about these?

-c- There’s a dozen ninjas on the patio.
-d- There’s two dozen ninjas on the patio.

]]> By: Jeremy http://blog.wordnik.com/synesis-and-garden-state-places/comment-page-1#comment-347 Jeremy Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:05:34 +0000 http://blog.wordnik.com/?p=218#comment-347 this particular example of verb "disagreement" seems to be rife throughout the "transparent" quantifier nouns, even when the quantifier is used in the singular. -a- There [*was|were] a dozen ninjas on the patio. -b- There [*was|were] two dozen ninjas on the patio. Example -a- suggests the problem: the "true" number is 12, but the article suggests a grammatical singular. In my idiolect, anyway, I use the plural verb for both -a- and -b-, which suggests that "a dozen" (and "a number") behave as grammatically transparent quantifiers. (example -b- is, of course, unsurprising, since both the effective number (24) and the grammatical number (two) are plural.) this particular example of verb “disagreement” seems to be rife throughout the “transparent” quantifier nouns, even when the quantifier is used in the singular.

-a- There [*was|were] a dozen ninjas on the patio.
-b- There [*was|were] two dozen ninjas on the patio.

Example -a- suggests the problem: the “true” number is 12, but the article suggests a grammatical singular. In my idiolect, anyway, I use the plural verb for both -a- and -b-, which suggests that “a dozen” (and “a number”) behave as grammatically transparent quantifiers.

(example -b- is, of course, unsurprising, since both the effective number (24) and the grammatical number (two) are plural.)

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