Common use of Agreement with collective nouns Clause in Contracts

Agreement with collective nouns. As already mentioned in the sections above, collective nouns can take a singular or plural verb. Usually, when we want the collective noun to mean a single group, we use a singular verb. For example: (2.1) Battered, hunkered down, but Iraq's army is undefeated. (The Economist. London: The Economist Newspaper Ltd, 1991) (2.2) Yes, the Kardashian clan is going head-to-head in an all-new interview with talk queen, Xxxxx Xxxxxxx. (CNN Showbiz, 2012) When we want the collective noun to refer to a number of individuals, we use a plural verb. This can be best illustrated with the following examples: (2.3) The crowd are climbing on each other's shoulders to get close to them and the hippy chicks are dancing acid-trip hand jives in pairs. (New Musical Express. London: Holborn Publishing Group, 1992) (2.4) The committee are absolutely appalled,’ he said, ‘particularly in view of a directive sent to clubs in regard to foul play. (London: Newspaper Publishing plc, 1989) According to Xxxxxxxxxx (1958:77), AmE is more conservative in its use of concord patterns than BrE. As Xxxxxxxxxx and Schlüter (2009:28) report, studies such as Xxxxx'x study from 2001, have shown that XxX is actually leading world English in using more singular concord with collective nouns in the twentieth century. The results from our analysis actually agree with this claim (see Section 4). Originally, when it comes to collective nouns, the singular verb was used, but as early as 1000, plural verbs began to appear with collective nouns. The use of singular verbs is the way they are still used in the United States today (Rohdenburg et al 2009:27). According to Xxxxxxxxxx et al (2009: 28), the use of plural verbs with collective nouns developed in England in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. Yet other studies of BrE have shown that plural verb agreement was at its highest even earlier, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but decreased again in the nineteenth century (Levin 2001:36).