GRAMMATICAL CONCORD
(A Treatise for Learners of English as a Second Language)
Tolu AKINWOLE Elizabeth ALE Christy OLORUNFEMI Joseph Olatayo AJAYI Leo Lekam OFEM Uche OYO and Ugbor Okoro AMA
University of Lagos, Lagos, 2014.
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1.0 INTRODUCTION “Two cannot walk together except they agree” is a profound maxim in the religious circles, but its truthfulness applies to every facet of human existence, and even to grammar. Hence, the grammatical category called concord. Basically, grammatical concord refers to the “agreement” of a subject with a verb, or a pronoun with its antecedent in a sentence. We develop goose bumps when we hear such sentences as *“He go to work every day” and *“The woman picked up his basket and made for the market” (where “his” refers to “the woman”)because they are not in keeping with the grammatical rule of concord. In grammar, concord is a broad notion which applies primarily to two lexical groups – the nominal group (nouns and pronouns) and the verbal group. We thus talk of subject-verb concord and pronoun-antecedent concord. Subsumed under the subject-verb concord is the “notional concord” and “proximity concord”. In this paper, we shall embark on a detailed study of subject-verb agreement and pronounantecedent agreement (and where applicable reproduce some general rules of concord as offered by grammarians). We shall also discuss, albeit briefly, other less common types of concord: subject-object agreement, determiner-noun agreement, and tense agreement. Lastly, we shall consider some common usage errors. Our examination of concord in this paper shall take into cognisance someusage problems associated with concord and grammarians’ attempts to solve them. Note that where the need arises illustrate a sentence structure with a tree diagram, we shall adopt the Chomskyan convention of grammatical analysis as presented through the transformational generative theory.
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2.0 A DEFINITION OF CONCORD Concord means agreement. In the English grammar, it is the agreement of a verb with its subject in number and person, and a pronoun with its antecedentin number, person and gender and case. At this juncture, a very cursory glance at the three grammatical categories which concord drags along – number, person,gender and case– will help in this study. Grammatical number expresses count distinctions. In English, the number categories are singular and plural.Person, in grammar, is the grammatical reference to participants in an event. Generally, the distinction is made to show the speaker, the addressee and other participants in the event. So we talk of the first person (I, we, me, us), the second person (you) and the third person (he, she, it, they, him, her, them). Grammatical gender is a system in which the noun is made to correspond with the natural gender. Case, in grammar, is a reflection of the grammatical function of a noun in a sentence. We have the subjective case for the noun functioning as the subject of a verb, the objective case for the noun as object of a verb, and the possessive case for a noun showing possession. 3.0 SUBJECT-VERB CONCORD There are several rules of concord, some of which are hard and fast. One can go ahead to offer a score of rules that govern subject-verb concord in the English grammar. To start with, we offer a few general rules. At the risk of sounding like a bad disc, we restate the basic rule: the verb agrees with its subject in number and person. 1.He goes to work every day. 2.The worker pays his tax as and when due. 3.Both girls jump and laugh at all times. 4.Our lecturers open their doors to students. In the sentences above, the verbs goes,pays, jump, laugh, and open are the operating verbs. Unlike nouns, the singular verb is marked with an –s or –es. So that in sentences 1 and 2,
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goes andpays are singular verbs collocating with singular subjects he and the worker; and in sentences 3 and 4, jump, laugh and open are plural verbs collocating with plural subjects – both girls and our lecturers. There is no singular-plural distinction in the past tense of verbs. It is not to be known whether the verb form went is in the singular form or the plural form. We simply make sentences like: 5.He saw the good old man again, and 6.We visited the amusement park. This distinction is however found in the be verbs. The verbs am and is are in the singular present form, and areis in the plural present form; was is in the singular past form, and wereis in the plural past form. They are used correctly in the sentences below. 7.He is singing. 8.I am happy. 9.They are asleep. 10. He was singing. 11. They were asleep. The beverbs in the sentences above are in the present tense. In sentence7 and 8, the verbs are singular; in sentence 9, the verb is plural. The form of the beverb in sentence 8 collocates only with the first person pronoun “I”. In a chain of verbs in a sentence, only the first verb in the chain is affected by this rule. If, however, the first in the chain of verbs is a modal auxiliary, it is not affected by this rule. This is exemplified in sentences 12 and 13 below. 12. He has done the job. 13. He will do the job. The verb phrase in sentence 12 contains two verbs, has and done, and the first of the verbs comes in its singular form, but because the first in the verb phrase in sentence 13 is a modal auxiliary verb, it remains as it is and the verb after it remains in its base form. It should also be noted that the second person pronoun, whether singular or plural, takes a plural verb:
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14. You go to work every day. Having clearly established this basic rule, we go on to offer some rules of concord. These rules are drawn from the various rules offered by grammarians such as Metcalfe and Astle (1958), Quirk and Greenbaum (1973), Corder (1981), Greenbaum and Nelson (2002), and Etame (2003). We have divided the rules into groups of relatedness, for ease of study. 3.1 Verbs with Compound Subjects A compound subject is one that is made up of two or more subject-elements. Care should be taken when dealing with this type of subject, as it does not always mean that the subject is plural. A number of rules guide the usage of verbs with compound subjects. First, when the nominal elements of a compound subject are joined together by the coordinating conjunction and, the verb should be in its plural form, as in the following examples: 15. Bola and Gabriel sing in the choir. 16. The president and the minister of health are expected at the launch. 17. Both the teacher and the student are guilty. If, however, both subject elements joined together by and refer to the same person, the singular form of the verb should be used, as in the sentences below. 18. The president and commander-in-chief of the armed forces condemns the act. 19. The managing director and editor-in-chief of the newspaper gives his comments. It should be noted that when both subject elements refer to the same person or thing (as in both examples above), only one definite article is used for both elements. When the first or both subjects joined by and are preceded by the distributive articles each and every, the verb must be singular.
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20. Each student and lecturer is expected at the meeting. 21. Every Tom, Dick and Harry goes to school these days. 22. Each boy and each girl wants to grow into an adult. When both elements joined by and complement each other, they are treated as a single entity.(We refer to this kind of agreement jocularly as the bread-and-butter agreement.) 23. Bread and omelette is my best meal. 24.Tie and dye is now being taught in schools. If elements of a compound subject joined by correlative conjunctions like or, nor, either...or, neither...nor are both singular, the verb is also singular. 25. Either the teacher or the student is guilty. 26.Neither Nkem nor her sister writeslegibly. 27. James or Thomas knows the way. When both subjects are plural, the verb is also plural. Examples: 28. Either the teachers or the students are guilty. 29. Neither the boys nor the girls sing loud. A singular subject followed by a phrase introduced by a subordinating conjunction like with, as well as, in conjunction with, together with, in addition to, along with takes a singular verb. 30. Mr Johnson with his wife travels often. 31.Olu as well as his siblings has arrived safely. 32. Nigeria, together with Ghana and Sierra Leone, plans to host the competition. Agreement rules that concern subjects joined by the coordinating conjunction are sometimes called “coordinating concord”, and those of subjects joined by correlative conjunctions are sometimes called “correlative concord”. We have avoided calling them such terms so as not to create confusion.
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3.2 Verbs with Collective Nouns Collective nouns are names that refer to a group of people or objects. Examples in English are army, committee, team, gang, jury, panel and orchestra.When a collective noun is made to represent a single unit, it takes a singular verb. This is exemplified in the sentences below. 33. The team has been practising for two weeks. 34. The jury has declared him guilty. 35. The panel considers him the best candidate.
When the collective noun refers to individuals in the group, the verb is plural. 36. The committeehave been paid their allowances. 37. The audience are to be seated before 2 p.m.
This type of concord is known as “notional concord”, which shall be discussed later. Corder (1981) suggests that because this type of construction sounds “rather unnatural”, it should be revised to clearly show a plural subject. So that sentence 36 should read thus: The committee members have been paid their allowances and we in no wise dispute this suggestion. Sentence 36 is quite logical, even without the addition of members. One can deduce that not one person in the committee has been paid, but more than one, and it is in that sense that the plural verb have should be used.
It is to be noted that when the collective noun is followed by of and a common noun, the resulting subject takes a singular verb: 38. This group of words makes a noun phrase. 39. A barrage of questions awaits us after this presentation.
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3.3 Verbs with Noun Phrases, Noun Clauses and Relative Clauses The noun clause in English is generally in the singular form (Greenbaum and Nelson, 2002), so it takes a singular verb always. This is shown in these sentences: 40. Whatever you think about me is your personal opinion. 41. That you won three medals is worth celebrating. 42. Whatever they know is irrelevant now. The noun phrase is not forced into such a strait jacket; it may be singular or plural, depending on the number of the head noun. In keeping with the basic rule of concord, if a noun phrase is singular it takes a singular verb, and if plural it takes a plural verb. In other words, a verb must agree with the head noun of a noun phrase. 43. The price of mobile phones has increased. 44. The behaviour of those children leaves much to be desired. 45. The three supervisors have approved the project proposal. 46. Many legislators from the opposition party have defected to our party. In sentences 43 and 44, the head nouns are price and behaviour, and they are both singular. That is why they take the singular verbs has and leaves. There lurks the tendency to take phones as the head noun in sentence 43– whereas the sentence is about price – and children as the head noun in sentence 44 – whereas the sentence is concerned with their behaviour. Incidentally, the noun behaviour is non-count and does not in any manner take a plural verb. In sentences 45 and 46, the head nouns are supervisors (plural noun) and legislators (plural noun), hence, their collocation with the plural verb have. Even when the head noun in a noun phrase is singular and qualified by conjoined adjectives, care must be taken to ensure that the verb is singular. In this sentence, 47. The long and rough winter has taken its toll on the soldiers, the subject remains singular by virtue of the singular form of the head noun winter. The conjoined adjectives long and rough modify the noun, and since the noun is singular the verb remains singular.
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When a relative clause is preceded by a subject, the verb in the relative clause agrees in number with the subject. We exemplify this with these examples: 48. You who are weary should come home. 49. He who is sick may visit the hospital. 50. I who am a visitor should be excused from your meeting. In each of the sentences above, the verb that occurs after the relative pronoun who agrees in number with the pronoun that precedes the relative pronoun. We normally say you are (and not you is), and I am (not I is). The common error of many users of English is to take the relative pronoun as the subject element. We shall deal with common errors later, so we presently proceed with our discussion of the subject-verb agreement. Of course, gerundial and infinitival phrases take singular verbs: 51. Flogging children doesno harm. 52. To accept defeat is suicide. 3.4 Verbs with “Pair Nouns” Some nouns appear as if they are plurals. They have no singular forms because they come in pairs (hence, the term “pair nouns”). Examples of pair nouns in the English language are glasses, pliers, scissors and trousers. Because of their nature, “pair nouns” do not take singular verbs when they are not introduced by a pair of. Let us consider these sentences: 53. A pair of glasses is what your eyes need. 54. A pair of black trousers is desirable. 55. My glasses are broken. 56. The pliers are in the workshop. We find that the presence of a pair of in sentences 53 and 54 demands a singular verb, but pair of is not present in sentences 55and 56, so that sentences 53 and 54 have singular subjects – pair in both sentences, but sentences 55 and 56 have plural subjects – glasses and pliers.
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3.5 Verbs with “False Plurals” “False plurals” are nouns that, though singular, end as if they are plurals. In other words, they appear as plural nouns but function as singular nouns. Words like mathematics, aesthetics, acrobatics, gymnastics, news and measles are ready examples of “false plurals”. Because they are not plural nouns, “false plurals” should never take plural verbs. They are used well in the sample sentences below: 57. Mathematics is my nightmare. 58. Measles is a communicable disease. 59. Aesthetics is a major principle in visual arts. 60. The news has spread far and wide. 3.6 Verbs with Quantifiers and Units of Measurement Quantifiers are a class of determiners that indicate quantity, just as the name implies. Some quantifiers are used with count nouns (examples: few and many), some are used with noncount nouns (examples: little and much), and others can be used with both count and noncount nouns (example: some). A non-count noun always takes a singular verb, no matter the determiner that comes before it. 61. Little milk is what I ask for. 62. Much water is needed here. Of course, a plural count noun after a quantifier takes a plural verb: 63. Few boys know what it is to be a father. It is easy to avoid coming into trouble with this aspect of concord, but users of English may face a problem with other “phrases of quantity” such as half of, two-thirds of, three-quarters of, a portion of, and a number of. The rule that concerns this is that if a “quantity phrase” comes before a non-count noun, the non-count noun takes a singular verb still:
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64. Half of the milk is gone. If, however, any of these “quantity phrases” comes before a count noun in its plural form, the count noun takes a plural verb: 65. Half of the boys have left. 66. Two-thirds of the legislators agree to the motion. 67. A number of people gatherto watch the match.
It should be noted that whereas a noun phrase that starts with a number of has the noun after of as its head, a noun phrase that starts with the number of has the noun number as its head. Because the “quantity phrase”a number of collocates with a noun in its plural form, it must take a plural verb (as in sentence 67 above). Since the noun number in the phrase the number of is singular, it must take a singular verb: 68. The number of people at the beach hasbeen ascertained. Then we come back to such collective nouns as crowd, audience, mob, committee and parliament. It is generally considered that individual members of the group are referred to when a collective noun is preceded by a “quantity phrase”. As such, a collective noun preceded by a “quantity phrase” takes a plural verb: 69. Half of the parliament opposethe motion. 70. One-third of the committee are not around. 71. A quarter of the teaching staff have been paid. Here, we take sentence 71 to illustrate some logic. If a quarter of the teaching staff have been paid, it means that each member of the staff that make up a quarter came to get their money. So we consider the one quarter as made of more than a person, and we refer to them. Quite frequently, a “quantity phrase” comes before a singular count noun. In such cases, the singular verb is used: 72. Seventy per cent of the stolen money has been recovered.
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73. Three-quarters of the building has been painted. Expressions that denote measurement and extent largely behave like collective nouns. They take singular verbs when the amount is considered as a unit and plural verbs when the amount is considered as individual units (Corder, 1981): 74. One hundred naira is too much for you. 75. Five hundred dollars is what he earns. 76. Two miles isnot too far. 77. Two miles of the roadhave been tarred. In sentences 74 - 76, the units of measurement are viewed as a unit, but in sentence 77, the individual unit is considered, as shown by the form of the verb used. (This again refers us to “notional concord”, discussed in 4.0.) 3.7 Verbs with Indefinite Pronouns Indefinite pronouns are pronouns that do not refer to specific entities. Some indefinite pronouns in English are singular; others are either singular or plural, depending on the sense the statement puts across. Some singular indefinite pronouns in English areeverybody, everyone, someone, somebody, nobody and no one. They are treated as singular entities and are not expected to take plural verbs. 78. At two, everybody wasalready seated. 79. Someone hasto speak for us. 80. Nobody has come to teach us. Indefinite pronouns such as all and some can be singular or plural. 81. All that glitters is not gold. 82. Some know the man, others do not. 83. All have sinned. 84. Many think they are better than others.
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In sentence 81, the pronoun all expresses the sense of a singular entity. It can be replaced by the pronoun everything, which collocates with a singular verb. In sentence 83, however, it suggests a plural entity. The pronoun many in sentence 84 is often plural. 3.8 Verbs with “Quasi-nouns” We intend “quasi-nouns” in this paper to refer to adjectives that function as nouns in sentences. Such adjectives are preceded by the, and are treated as plural: 85. The young have imbibed the wrong values. 86. The helpless need our encouragement. 87. The learned live in luxury. The derived adjective accused is an exception to this rule – perhaps one of the exceptions. It is used sometimes in the plural sense and sometimes in the singular sense. An expression like The accused has given his statement is commonplace in a court of law. And it is grammatical if just one person has been accused. If more than one person has been accused, we expect the lawyer to say, The accused have given their statements. 3.9 Verbs in Inverted Structures Often, a sentence structure may be inverted so that the subject is not found at the beginning of the sentence. This is common with interrogative sentences and sentences that start with words like here and there. When dealing with inverted sentence structures, one should be careful to identify the subject and make the verb agree with it accordingly. 88. How is your child? 89. How are your father and mother? 90. Here is the marker. 91. There are the books you gave me. In each of the sentences above, the subject is not found at the beginning, so that one may mistake the first word for the subject. In sentences 88 and 89, we find the SVC inversion, and
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in sentences 90 and 91, we find the SVA inversion. Chomsky’s transformational generative grammar gives a mode of analysis of inverted structures, and we illustrate it here with sentence 90: How are your father and mother? We take it as the surface structure. The diagram below illustrates its deep structure from which the surface structure arises. In the diagram, S means sentence, NP means nounphrase, AUX refers to auxiliary, and VP refers to verbphrase. A sentence is thus realised as a noun phrase and an auxiliary and a verb phrase. The noun phrase is realised as a determiner (Det.) and two nouns (N) joined by a conjunction (Conj.); the auxiliary rather states the quality of the verb as plural and present; and the verb phrase is realised as a main verb (MV) and a complement (Compl.). The result is presented in the structural description (SD) – your father and mother plural present be how – and the surface structure (SS) is how are your father and mother.
We shall apply the wh-inversion rule in the analysis of this sentence structure. The symbol that looks like a triangle in the diagram above has no meaning; it appears in the deep structure with the question word (Okoro, 2010). The yes/no question transformation rule is
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first applied to the deep structure. The rule switches the NP with the tense and first auxiliary element, but in this case the NP with the auxiliary and the be verb. The result is: plural present be your father and mother how. Then the wh-question switch rule is applied. This rule brings the question word forward, and it gives us the next form of the sentence: how plural present be your father and mother. The affix switch rule gives us the surface structure: how are your father and mother? Another glance at the deep structure reveals that your father and mother is the subject of the sentence. Since it is a compound subject in which the nominal elements are conjoined with and, it takes a plural verb, so that we should be careful not to be misled by the surface structure. 3.10 Miscellaneous Subject-Verb Concord Rules The rules we discuss here could have been grouped under some headings, but doing that will not give them the attention they deserve. For the sole purpose of drawing attention to them have we decided not to lump them up with others. (We hasten to add, though, that our treatment of subject-verb concord here is by no means exhaustive.) Generally, a verb agrees with its subject rather than its complement or its object: 92. My major concern was the assignments I had to do. 93. The assignments I had to do weremy major concern. Nouns like goods, congratulations, savings, stairs, particulars, riches, and minutes(an official record of what is said or done during a meeting) are always plural, so they should always take plural verbs:
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94. His savings are gone. 95. His particulars were presented to the policeman. A noun phrase that begins with many a or many an has a singular noun as its head and as such takes a singular verb. 96. Many a student of the English grammar struggles with its rules. 97. Many an old woman wants to be young again. Titles of books or organisationsin their plural forms take singular verbs: 98. The Weavers is a writers’ club in the University of Lagos. 99. Romeo and Juliet is an interesting play. When expressions such as one of, each of, either of and neither of come before plural nouns, the nouns take singular verbs: 100. Each of the boys has had his hair cut. 101. Either of the doors is good. 102. One of those girls knows the answer. But, 103. She is one of those girls who know the answer. In sentence 103, the verb is agrees with the singular pronoun she, and the verb know agrees with those girls. One should be careful not to think that she controls both verbs. A more logical way of determining the verb form to use is to ask:how many girls know the answer in sentence 102? One single girl does. In sentence 103, how many girls know the answer? Many girls do. Thus, we settle the question of what verb to use. Albeit the determiner none denotes a singular form, it may take a singular or a plural verb: 104. None of the lecturers is around. 105. None of the lecturers are around. In prayers, wishes, and suggestions, the verb remains in its base form. This is because in such structures, the auxiliary verb is omitted, and we have asserted that the rule of concord does
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not affect a verb phrase that starts with a modal auxiliary verb (see 3.0, sentence 13 above). These sentences illustrate this point. 106. (May) God bless you. 107. We agreed that Peter (should) clean the board. 108. I hope that he (will) land safely. 3.11Factors that Affect the Basic Rule of the Subject-Verb Concord Quirk and Greenbaum (1973) identify two factors that interfere with the basic rule of concord as proximity concord and notional concord (which used to be known as synesis). They are the reason the basic rule is usually flouted. The rule of proximity in concord holds that a verb agrees in number with the nominal element that is nearest to it. This is especially seen when the constituents of the compound subject differ in number and therefore require different verbs. In sentence 109below, for instance, the first noun in the compound subject is plural (students) and the second is singular (teacher). The speaker or writer has, at this point, to decide which subject the verb should agree with, and the proximity rule comes to aid. The proximity rule also explains the reason for the structure found in sentences 111and 112. 109. 110. 111. 112.
Either the students or the teacher is around. Either the teacher or the students are around. Either Peter or I am to blame for this problem. Those lecturers, Peter, or you were not able to answer the question.
The rule of notion in concord holds that the number of a collective noun is determined by the sense it is meant to convey. If it is meant to convey the sense of a unit it takes a singular verb, and if meant to show individual members of the unit in action, it takes a plural verb. We hasten to add that the form of the verb chosen to collocate with a collective noun must be consistent:
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The committee is expected to submit its report next week. It is also expected to submit its recommendations. 4.0 PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT CONCORD To avoid repetition and inelegant speeches, nouns are usually replaced with pronouns in sentences. The noun that a pronoun refers to in a text is the antecedent. In the sentence “John has done his assignment”, the noun John is antecedent to the pronoun his. Johnis a proper noun. The basic rule that concerns the pronoun-antecedent agreement is that a pronoun should always agree in person, number and gender with its antecedent. It is easy to explain pronoun-antecedent agreement in one clean sweep, since all that there is to it is the agreement of a pronoun with the noun it agrees to. So, we give the one clean sweep with the rules that follow. Subjects that have singular number agreement must also take singular pronouns. Note the pronouns in the sentences below. 113. A woman takesher children to school. 114. That ladythinks she is better than others. Of course, because the noun woman has the feminine gender, so must its pronoun. This is why it is the pronoun her, and not his, that refers back to woman. Conversely, subjects that have plural number agreement must also take plural pronouns. Note the pronouns in the sentences below. 115. Women take their children to school. 116. Severalof us think we are better than others. 117. Many students take their studies for granted.
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A relative pronoun agrees in number and person with its antecedent but takes its case from its function in its clause (Akere et al., 1990). This rule is exemplified in the sentences below. 118. The man whom you slapped was once my husband. 119. Here is the bursar whom we have all been waiting for. Sentences 118 and 119 are familiar structures. We take sentence 118 to explain both. We find the relative pronoun whom in the objective case because it is the object of the verb slapped in its clausewhom you slapped. Worthy of note is the indefinite pronoun one, used in 120. One has to be careful. It is used when nobody in particular is referred to. In other words, it is used in general statements. Whenever this pronoun is used, there is the urge to mistake it for a noun and introduce other pronouns into the sentence in which it is used, so that it is common to hear such an ungrammatical sentence as “*One has to face his studies squarely”. In a word, when the pronoun one is used in a sentence, it is not to be mistaken for a noun. 121. One has to face one’s studies squarely. 122. One does not know if one knows anything anymore. 4.1 USAGE PROBLEM Often, there are differing views about the behaviour of verbs and pronouns in certain grammatical environments. We have said that subjects that have singular number agreement must also take singular pronouns, and this rule applies to indefinite pronouns as well. Indefinite pronouns as well as other types of pronouns that stand for single entities take singular verbs (see 3.7 above). Most speakers and writers are often reluctant to follow this
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rule, for the question often asked is: since the indefinite pronoun refers to no specific entity, how does one determine its gender? Pronouns are not the only troublesome words. Some common nouns like child, friend, teacher, lecturer and doctor come into this category. Yule (1985) offers that this dilemma stems from the need to avoid being accused of gender bias. The common practice now is to avoid using the generic masculine gender but to use the plural pronoun they. So that we may hear sentences like 123. 124. 125. 126.
Everybody should hand in their assignment. Why does everyone think they know you? Someone who has not been to school cannot hold their head high. A teacher is expected to know their boundary.
Curiously, the subjects in the sentences above take singular verbs. Metcalfe and Astle (1958), however, find this form “senseless”. They suggest that instead of the plural pronoun the allembracing his or herwill do; otherwise, there is nothing wrong with the generic masculine gender. We do hold that constructions with his or her, for example: 127. Everybody should hand in his or her assignment 128. Why does everyone think he or she knows you? are clumsy and sometimes come in the way of easy speech. There is therefore nothing wrong in using the plural pronoun instead. 5.0 OTHER TYPES OF CONCORD As we have hinted above, there are less common types of concord. We dedicate this short space to discussing them, albeit briefly.
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5.1 TENSE AGREEMENT Tense, in English, indicates the time of an action. So we refer to the present tense – indicating actions that occur presently or habitually – and the past tense – indicating actions that have been concluded. Tense agreement in English holds that verb tense in a sentence should be consistent. Thus, if the first verb in a sentence is in the past tense, other verbs in the sentence should also be in the past. Please note that our use of verbs in this section is to refer to the simple verbs, the phrasal verb and the verb phrase. Of course, in a verb phrase only the first verb gets the tense marker. The following sentences exemplify this type of agreement: 129. He camein and told me to bolt the door. 130. Dr Okoro said he would come to class next week. 131. Mary had done her homework when we arrived. 5.2 DETERMINER-NOUN HEAD AGREEMENT A determiner must agree with a head noun. Some determiners collocate with singular nouns and other with plural nouns; some with count nouns and others with non-count nouns. For instance, many is used with count nouns in the plural form, and much is used with non-count nouns. And we do know that the articles a andan are used with singular count nouns. We thus expect such sentences as: 132. A boy stood at the door. 133. Many women are angry. 134. I have much work to do. 5.3 SUBJECT-OBJECT AGREEMENT This is another type of agreement that is not given much attention because it is discussed only where the object is a reflexive pronoun. This type of agreement holds that subject should agree with an object in number, person and gender: 135. He has hurt himself. 136. She has been talking to herself all day. 137. They congratulated themselvesheartily.
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5.4 SUBJECT-COMPLEMENT AGREEMENT A subject agrees in number but not in person with its complement (Quirk and Greenbaum, 1973). So, if a subject is singular, its complement should also be singular; and if a subject is singular, its complement should also be plural: 138. The man is a lawyer. 139. The men are lawyers. We find exceptions to this agreement rule in the following sentences: 140. These assignments are a trouble to me. 141. Good manners are a rarity these days. (Quirk and Greenbaum, 1973)
6.0 COMMON USAGE ERRORS Here are a few common usage errors that we have observed among speakers of English as a second language. (a.) Failure to make a verb agree with its subject. This is termed blind agreement (Corder, 1981): 142. *Each of these machines are faulty. 143. *A group of boys roam the streets. 144. *Either of the two are acceptable. (b.) Use of the wrong verb with “false plurals”: 145. *News fly. (c.) Use of the wrong verb with “pair nouns”: 146. *My trousers is bad. (Sometimes, *My trouser is bad.) 147. *The pliers is in the workshop. (d.) Wrong identification of the subject in inverted structures: 148. *How is your mom and dad? 149. *How is your studies? 150. *On that table is my books.
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(e.) Inconsistency of the indefinite pronoun one: 151. *One should have their teeth checked every six months. 152. *One has to have his bath before leaving his home. (f.) Inconsistency of verb tense in a sentence. 153. *She has done her homework when we arrived. 7.0 CONCLUSION One can clearly see that identifying the structure and system of the various elements of the English sentence is not the end of the road. One should also be conscious of how the various elements relate, bearing in mind that a sentence ought to have a correct syntactic form. Mastering the rules of concord is a sure way of producing correct sentences (all other things being equal, of course). In a word, concord is an important grammatical category. It makes for cohesion in texts, when applied as it should be, easily reminding one of the biblical epigram: “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. It is thus essential for a learner of English to get a good hold on grammar, for – as Akere et al. (1990) aver – most syntactic errors committed by users of English can be traced to the flouting of the rules of concord.
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REFERENCES Akere, Funso, et al. English Across Disciplines. Lagos: Pumark Nigeria Limited, 1990. Corder, Jim W. Handbook of Current English. Illinois: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1981. Etame, Festus A.D. Understanding English Grammar. Lagos: Dale Management Consultancy, 2003. Greenbaum, Sidney, and Gerald Nelson. An Introduction to Grammar. Britain: Pearson Education Limited, 2002. Okoro, Oko. “An Introduction to a Transformational Generative Grammar”. University of Lagos: unpublished lecture notes, 2010. Metcalfe, J.E. and C. Astle. Correct English. England: Clarion Books, 1958. Quirk, Randolph. and Sidney Greenbaum. A University Grammar of English. London: Longman Groups Ltd, 1973. Yule, George. The Study of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
