Notional Agreement

Question

Please can someone explain me the use of notional agreement. How and where should we use it and what effect it may have on the meaning of a sentence.

The government is considering the proposal
The government are considering the proposal

Similarly, when two nouns are connected by a conjunction, we can use a singular verb due to the notional agreement.

Chips and beans is my favourite appetizer.
(Here chips and beans are considered as a single entity i.e. they both together work as an appetizer for me.)

But what about the nouns that refer to people.

Chuck and Wendy is the best team that we have.
(Do we use "is" in such sentences due to the notional agreement or due to the collective noun that follows the verb.)

I knw we certainly cannot say "Chuck and Wendy was happily married for about six months".
But I don;t understand that why this is not the case of notional agreement.

GB

Milky · Accepted Answer

Have a look at this page:

http://www.bartleby.com/68/28/4128.html

Anonymous · Answer

I asked the ABC why commentators frequently refer to countries in the plural eg "Australia are..." or "India are....."? Countries, or teams representing them, are singular entities and the correct wording is (Australia is..." etc. Even "the West Indies is" is correct.

The ABC replied as follows"

There is room for choice over a singular or a plural verb with the names of groups such as sporting teams, companies and departments, and this is well documented in modern style guides. Thus, a team can be treated as a single entity (calling for singular verbs and pronouns), or as consisting of a collective of team members (with matching plural verbs and pronouns). When the singular form of a collective noun is matched with a singular verb, we have what linguists refer to as formal agreement. When the plural sense of the noun is reflected in a plural verb, we have notional agreement. Both approaches are considered good practice, but the plural option seems to be the dominant one, especially in sports contexts.

Personaly I think the response is a cop out and use of the plural is sloppy.

Notional Agreement

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions