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Ander Posted 9 years ago
Grammar

Does case apply to subordinate phrases?

I don't think it does. For example, here:

Society — and young, aspiring artists in particular — suffers because corporate greed has triumphed over education, culture and the free exchange of creative ideas.

..."suffers" applies only to "society" (singular), right? But what about this?:

Mike — and his entourage, which always wore black — was waiting backstage.

Is this one of those cases (NPI) where grammar rules must be observed, even though the result is unnatural-sounding?

  

Top answer

Both quotes are okay. In the first one, "society" includes "aspiring artists," so the verb rightly agrees with "society," and is singular in number. In the second one, "entourage" has a singular sense, in that it refers to a "group," so the verb is rightly singular here.

— Anonymous

  • Both quotes are okay.
  • In the first one, "society" includes "aspiring artists," so the verb rightly agrees with "society," and is singular in number.
  • In the second one, "entourage" has a singular sense, in that it refers to a "group," so the verb is rightly singular here.
  • " Here we have a similar situation: "gang" has a singular sense, so the verb is rightly singular.
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3 Answers
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Both quotes are okay. In the first one, "society" includes "aspiring artists," so the verb rightly agrees with "society," and is singular in number.


In the second one, "entourage" has a singular sense, in that it refers to a "group," so the verb is rightly singular here. Another example of this kind of usage: "Mike - and his gang, which tags along with him everywhere - is waitin

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AnderIs this one of those cases (NPI) where grammar rules must be observed, even though the result is unnatural-sounding?

I don't understand why you used the term NPI. In my experience, this stands for 'negative polarity item'. What is the connection that your are inferring?

And you used the word 'case'

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AnderMike — and his entourage, which always wore black — was waiting backstage.

if you omit the m-dashes (which set apart a parenthetical phrase), both subject and verb would be plural.

Mike and his entourage, which always wore black, were waiting backstage.

A parenthetical element is not integral to the structure of the senten

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