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dridgway
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Location: Suwon, S. Korea
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 Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:09 pm Post subject: Dude, where's my grammar? |
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Before I start I just want to acknowledge that this may be a dumb question but I seem to have confused myself so if anyone can steer me in the right direction I would really appreciate it.
I don't teach grammar in my school but sometimes I answer some questions for the Korean teachers (usually they have the right answers but just feel like they need my confirmation because I'm a "native speaker" ha-ha) and this one seems to have got me all confused:
Tolling technology is advancing so fast that $3 billion-worth of electronic charging systems has/have already been installed worldwide.
The question I was asked is which is the subject in the "A of B" situation and consequently whether to use has or have.
I answered that I would use have because the subject is the charging systems. I never claim to be an authority on things like this, but that's what I would do. Some of the Korean teachers disagree with me because apparently in an "A of B" situation you should use the A as the subject. I'm cool with being wrong on this one but they're not 100% sure so I said I'd try to get some other input.
Thanks for any help! |
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some waygug-in
Joined: 25 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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You're right, they are wrong.
I seem to recall reading in a grammar book about this kind of sentence and the "rule" was the subject closest to the verb determines the way the verb should be conjugated.
Since A is singular but B is plural, and B is closest to the verb, the verb should correctly be "have".
I'm sure someone will disagree, but I did read this in a grammar book once.
cheers. |
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riley
Joined: 08 Feb 2003
Location: where creditors can find me
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| Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Ask them what has been installed worldwide, is it the technology (subject of the first part of the sentence) or systems (subject of the second part)? It's obvious that the second subject completes the sentence so the verb has to be have. |
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Woland
Joined: 10 May 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject: Re: Dude, where's my grammar? |
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| dridgway wrote: |
Before I start I just want to acknowledge that this may be a dumb question but I seem to have confused myself so if anyone can steer me in the right direction I would really appreciate it.
I don't teach grammar in my school but sometimes I answer some questions for the Korean teachers (usually they have the right answers but just feel like they need my confirmation because I'm a "native speaker" ha-ha) and this one seems to have got me all confused:
Tolling technology is advancing so fast that $3 billion-worth of electronic charging systems has/have already been installed worldwide.
The question I was asked is which is the subject in the "A of B" situation and consequently whether to use has or have.
I answered that I would use have because the subject is the charging systems. I never claim to be an authority on things like this, but that's what I would do. Some of the Korean teachers disagree with me because apparently in an "A of B" situation you should use the A as the subject. I'm cool with being wrong on this one but they're not 100% sure so I said I'd try to get some other input.
Thanks for any help! |
You're right. The correct verb here is 'have'. But go easy on your Korean colleagues because their error is understandable. And it's one that some native speakers make.
The real question isn't what the subject of the verb 'have' is, because it is the whole phrase, "three billion dollars worth of electronic charging systems." The real question is which noun is the head of that phrase, 'worth' or 'systems' (the latter as head of the compound noun, 'electronic charging systems').
'Worth' isn't the head because it is really part of 'three billion dollars' worth of', which is a grammatical element known as a phrasal quantifier, which may sometimes appear to be a noun phrase. Note that we can replace the phrasal quantifier in this sentence with another, more common one, 'a lot of', producing:
A lot of electronic charging systems have been bought.
When we do that it becomes clear that 'systems' is the head and that the verb should agree with it; producing that sentence with 'has' would be ungrammatical.
Further proof of the nature of the phase is that we can replace it with a quantifier which is a single lexical item, like 'some', again with the same result:
Some electronic charging systems have been bought.
Your Korean colleagues have been taught that this 'A of B' construction has to be parsed as a noun phrase followed by a prepositional phrase. In this case, the noun which is head of the initial noun phrase will govern verb agreement, as the following example shows:
A man has been elected.
People have been elected.
A man of the people has been elected.
This 'rule' that the head noun of A is the head of the whole phrase ignores the existence of phrasal quantifiers as a category (as do many books for teaching language) and leads to this kind of argument. Treat 'X dollars' worth of' as a single lexical unit, under the heading quantifier, which is a type of nominal modifier, and all should be good. (BTW, one implication of this is that not all lexical items are completely specified in the lexicon; phrasal modifiers of this type can't be.)
Last edited by Woland on Mon May 28, 2007 11:55 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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dridgway
Joined: 18 Sep 2006
Location: Suwon, S. Korea
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| Posted: Mon May 28, 2007 10:35 pm Post subject: |
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Thaks for the help. Grammar advice is always good, especially when you're saying I was right.
No worries about going easy on them, I make just as many mistakes as anyone. I'm just impressed and glad that they actually took the time to look into it and find the right answer for the students. |
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