It’s Hard Not to Like George H.W. Bush
Posted on September 26th, 2013 in Uncategorized | 7 Comments »
The Washington Post reports that he served as a witness at a gay wedding in Maine; the happy couple was two women who co-owned a general store in Maine.
It’s things like this that give you hope.
Also: those socks!
7 Responses
9/26/2013 7:21 am
Yes, it gives you hope, but not the grammar. Couple is plural in this situation and the two women still own the store, thus co-own.
9/26/2013 8:20 am
Actually, Anon, you touch on a grammatical grey area.
Nouns can’t really switch from singular to plural like an octopus changing its colors, and couple is a collective noun, like “data” or “media”. That said, it’s one of those cases where being technically correct—collective noun uses singular verb—just sounds weird.
You’re right about “co-owned,” but that’s a factual mistake on my part, not a grammatical one; there’s nothing grammatically incorrect about it.
9/26/2013 8:39 am
Unfortunately, there is no grey area.
From The NYT style book:
couple may be either singular or plural. Used in reference to two distinct but associated people, couple should be construed as a plural: The couple were married in 1952. The couple argued constantly; they [not it] even threw punches. When the idea is one entity rather than two people, couple may be treated as a singular: Each couple was asked to give $10; The couple was the richest on the block.
9/26/2013 10:08 am
Shockingly, not all of us go by the NYT style book, which has its own quirks and anachronisms.
But, to argue against myself, the Economist largely agrees with you—and the Times.
http://www.economist.com/style-guide/singular-or-plural
Relevant quote: “Do not, in any event, slavishly give all singular collective nouns singular verbs: The couple are now living apart is preferable to The couple is now living apart.”
But that Economist entry begins by saying, “There is no firm rule about the number of a verb governed by a singular collective noun.”
So I take “there is no firm rule” to mean the same as “this is a gray area.” And in fairness, I would agree with you that in this case the plural of the verb sounds better.
9/26/2013 11:03 am
Not very grey, RB, not just because of the tendency for collective nouns to be plural when constituent elements are the focus, singular when a unit is imagined. Your use of the plural predicate “two women” really does call for the plural verb, whereas a singular predicate “the happy couple was a pair of women” would be a different matter.
9/26/2013 11:18 am
More on topic, a couple I know (two married women) were eating in the same restaurant in Maine as George and Barbara several years ago, and have a lovely photo of them and the Bushes with their baby son sitting on George’s lap. Barbara was the one who insisted they all take the picture.
9/26/2013 12:42 pm
I will defer and suggest that I am happy to have sparked a high-level discussion of grammar!
Nice story, Anon.