Subject-verb agreement

Question

"Democratic attorneys general across the nation have fought Trump with scores of lawsuits, but the powers of James’s office and her perch in the president’s home state positions her as a unique threat."

(The Guardian.)

Is the powers of James’s office and her perch in the president’s home state a compound noun phrase in the sentence above? Or, are there two independent noun phrases coordinated by "and" there?

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Where I'm confused is the subject-verb agreement, namely, the relation between the powers... and her perch... (nouns) and positions (a verb).

GPY · Accepted Answer

It doesn't read right to me. I think it should be "position", especially because of the plural "powers".

* Hmm .. sorry, looking again I'm not so certain. Perhaps someone else can give an opinion.

BillJ · Answer

Democratic attorneys general across the nation have fought Trump with scores of lawsuits, but [the powers of James’s office] and [her perch in the president’s home state] positions her as a unique threat.

The subject of the underlined clause consists of a coordination of the two bracketed NPs linked

The subject of the underlined clause consists of a coordination of the two bracketed NPs linked by "and", with the VP "positions her as a unique threat" as predicate.

In general a subject with the form of a coordination of NPs linked by "and" takes a plural verb irrespective of whether the individual coordinates are singular or plural, which would point to plural "position" being correct here.

However, it appears that the writer intended the two NPs to be conceptualised as a single entity, thus overriding the plural form to give the singular "positions".

Subject-verb agreement

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