Who's the subject?

Question

In the following sentence: "One popular family of shape deformation techniques are space deformation methods" Is the subject is family and then it should be 'is' or the subject is the deformation methods and then the 'are' is fine?

BillJ · Accepted Answer

The subject of the sentence is the noun phrase "One popular family of shape deformation techniques". The head of the phrase is the singular "family", so the verb should also be the singular "is".

BillJ

Zohar Levi · Answer

Thanks for your answer.
My editor still persists that the subject is methods and it should be 'are'. How sure are you of your answer, and is the other form can't be an option as well?

BillJ · Answer

*"One popular family of shape deformation techniques are [space deformation methods]".

The problem is that this is not a well-formed sentence. The underlined noun phrase, the subject, is definitely singular because the head word is "family". But the complement in brackets is plural, so there is a mismatch. It needs to be changed to something like:

"One popular family of shape deformation techniques is the space deformation method".

I'm not familiar with the technical content of the sentence, but grammatically that would be fine.

BillJ

Zohar Levi · Answer

Yes, but this is exactly the point. It's not only one space deformation method, but a group (family).

Here is another example:

2. "The first ingredient of our method is the Interior Radial Basis Functions (IRBF) that are based upon interior geodesic distances"

i.e. ingredient is functions (more than one function) - singular is plural.

Another example:

3. "One group of people that is going to compete is (meaning consists) Dan, Moshe, and Chaim."

So are you saying that I can't formulate these kind of sentences in any way? I mean there's a duality here, family can be countable (as in one family among many) and can also be uncountable (family of people), and my sentence try to use them both.

Enoon · Answer

"One popular family of shape deformation techniques are space deformation methods."

methods are family
family is methods

The copulative "be" permits either interpretation. That is the nature of a copulative. But since "family" comes first, it is the subject.

The basic problem here is that English sucks at this, as you can see. You and your editor are both right about the verb. A subsidiary problem is that it is possible to construe "family" as plural, as I believe the British would tend to here. My family goes on vacation, but a British family go on holiday. Even so, I think an American could get on board with "family are" with only a little distraction. However, writing that calls attention to itself is bad writing unless it intends to do that.

Since English falls down when it comes up against such conundrums, and since I'm from an American family, I suggest using a more specific verb that sidesteps the problem: One popular family of shape deformation techniques comprises the space deformation methods."

Prolider · Answer

Just turn the sentence around a bit and you'll see it more clearly: "2. The Interior Radial Basis Functions (IRBF), based upon interior geodesic distances, (they-the functions) are the first ingredient of our method." and: "3. Dan, Moshe, and Chaim (they-the persons) are one group of people that is going to compete." Now you know which applies in both directions =)

Zohar Levi · Answer

I liked the side-stepping with 'comprise', but I would still like to settle this.

I didn't know there's the American way and the British way here; as I wrote previously, I gather that it's context dependent.

First, you wrote: "a British family go on holiday", did you mean to use an article 'a', since then it doesn't make sense at all to me (shouldn't an article 'a' definitely suggest singular?). If it was a typo, then how can you approve "One family are methods" (American way)?

Second, I find it more intuitive to use 'family is methods', and if I understand correctly than you approve?

Zohar Levi · Answer

My previous reply was meant for @enoon.

@prolider, I think @enoon disagrees with you, and holds that the subject is based on first come first serve. So it does matter if you switch sides.

Enoon · Answer

I can't believe you made me look up "a" in the dictionary. http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/american/a_12shows definition 4 "used before a singular noun that represents every person or thing of a particular type" and supplies an example "A molecule consists of two or more atoms."

I don't mean to be harsh, but I can't help remarking that if you don't know the above use of the indefinite article, or the difference between "then" and "than", your intuition is not yet in any shape to be trusted. "Family is methods" is the brute-force way out, but it is clumsy and distracting, and I do not approve.

Zohar Levi · Answer

I hope I wasn't offensive, if I sounded like that then it was never my meaning. Concerning my level, I would grade my self B+ from a scale of C- to A+, so don't take my intuition very seriously.

My 'than' was a typo, and as we discussed on the other thread I can't edit posts. Concerning the definition of 'a', I think we all agree it comes before a singular. But since a family can be both singular and plural depending on the context, use should add 'a' only when appropriate. So in your British family example I find it contradicting that you use both 'go' to suggest plural and add an 'a' to suggest singular at the same time.

Thanks for your opinion that 'family is methods" sounds bad, but I want to clarify it, since it was your first example on your previous post.

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