A Student's Introduction to English Grammar

88 Chapter 5 Nouns and noun phrases

Treasurer in [ia] is what we have called a bare role NP (one without a deter­

miner: see Ch. 4, §4.1). Nouns that do not denote some kind of role or office can­

not occur without a determiner in predicative complement function, as evident

from the contrast between treasurer and millionaire in [i]: treasurer is a role in

an organisation, but millionaire is just a status that anyone has as soon as their net

worth reaches a million dollars, pounds, etc.

In [iia] we have two closely related nouns in a coordination construction, which

sometimes allows omission of the determiner. But the same nouns need deter­

miners when they are not in a coordination, as we see from [iib].

(c) Certain determinatives are generally restricted to one or other

interpretation

Determinatives such as the, this, that, what, and no occur with either type of noun,

but in singular NPs the determinatives listed in [16] are generally restricted to one

or the other, as illustrated in [17]:

[16] COUNT

11 NON-COUNT

one, another, each, every, either, neither; also to some extent a

much, little, a little, enough, sufficient; also to some extent all

[17] a. Every table was inspected.

ii a. *He didn't read much book.

b. * Every furniture was inspected.

b. He didn 't drink much water.

We have set aside a and all at the end of the lists because with these determinatives
there are some exceptions, as in He has a high regard for them (where regard is non­
count) and He spent all day at the races (where day is count).

2.3 Subject-verb agreement

Number is the major factor involved in subject-verb agreement.

Compare:

[18] SINGULAR SUBJECT

a. Their dog eats a lot.

ii a. Their dog was eating.

PLURAL SUBJECT

b. Their dogs eat a lot.

b. Their dogs were eating.

As we change from a singular subject in [a] to a plural subject in [b] the inflectional
form of the verb changes too, and the verb is accordingly said to agree with the sub­
ject. The agreement applies in the present tense with all verbs except the modal aux­
iliaries. In the preterite, only the verb be displays agreement: other preterites such
as ate occur in the same form with all kinds of subject.
Subject-verb agreement involves person as well as number, for 1st person I,
although singular, requires eat, not eats. Eats occurs with 3rd person singular sub­
jects and eat with all others: i.e. plurals, 1 st person I, or 2nd person you. But most
of the complexities regarding agreement arise with respect to number, and that is
why we will now focus on number in more detail. There are four special cases to be
noted.