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From: dis2@houxm.UUCP (A.NESTOR)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re:Grammer (Sic!) Quiz
Message-ID: <798@houxm.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 14-Jun-84 12:22:05 EDT
Article-I.D.: houxm.798
Posted: Thu Jun 14 12:22:05 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 15-Jun-84 01:13:13 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 13


 "The team won its first game tonight. Afterwards, they went out to cellebrate."
  Except for the spelling of "cellebrate", the sentences are correct.
  A noun which refers to an aggregate takes a singular or plural pronoun
  according to whether it is used in a collective or distributive sense.
  The sense of the sentences is that the team as a whole won the game and
  the members of the team went out to celebrate.
   
  In connection with collective and distributive number, it is interesting
  to note that the British say that the government are , while Americans
  say that the government is.
 
                                         Creighton Clarke
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