Chapter Two

A Theoretical Background

2.0 Introduction

This chapter begin with grammatical concept of agreement in general term.then, a brief
discussion types of agreement in English (subject- verb agreement, demonstrative -noun
agreement, noun- pronoun agreement, subject-verb agreement with or and nor, always-singular
pronouns and determiners, collective noun -verb agreement ) also rules of agreement in Standard
English. Our goal in this chapter is to introduce the concept of agreement for the readers in order
to avoid mistakes while they use it.

2.1 Definition

Concord is the general grammatical term of the language. In a basic sense, it refers to the
relationship between two grammatical units. One unit which triggers the agreement relation is
known as “controller” and the other unit which is determined by the controller known as
“target”. These two units are determined by syntactic and semantic characteristics which are
called “agreement features”. This means that if the subject is the controller and the verb is the
target, the agreement features are represented by the use of number and person (Corbett, 2006,
pp. 4-5). It is relatively limited in the present day and it occurs between the subject and the verb
in the present tense. A third person singular subject is followed by a verb with -s suffix ending.

Types of agreement

Randolph Quirk & Sidney Greenbaum (RQ SG June 1973 ),there

Exist six type of agreement in English, subject-object , pronoun , subject-complement,
coordinate subject, subject-verb, collective noun.

Pronoun agreement

Pronouns and I agree with the people or things they refer to both, in terms of number and in the
case of "he " "she," and "it " gender well. For example;
John hurt his foot.
John and Beatrice hurt their feet.
Beatrice hurt her foot.
The climbers hurt their feet.

However if we were to say "John hurt her foot " it would mean that John injured someone Foot
(with that someone else being mentioned.

It's worth noting that English doesn't have a gender pronoun for the third person. As a result
informally many people use the plural pronoun "they" of following grammatical agreement rules
when referring to pronouns, like everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, anyone, anybody,
no one, nobody. For instance;
Everyone thinks they have the answer. [1]
Has anybody brought their camera? [2]
No one could have blamed themselves for that. [3]

Subject-object agreement

Agreement, between subjects and objects is

important when it comes to matching number, person and gender. The same agreement applies
when using pronouns in subject complement constructions. For example;

He hurt himself in the leg.

You should give yourself another opportunity.

This agreement also applies when reflexive pronouns are used in functions, such as being a
complement. It also applies when using genitives like "his own." For instance;

She is making a sweater, for herself.

Keep it for yourself.
They are ruining their chances.

In English nouns as subjects allow for plural agreement. For example;

The navy congratulated themselves on the victory.

Coordinated Subjects

When a sentence has a subject containing multiple noun phrases joined by "and," we need to
differentiate between two types of coordination: appositional and non-appositional. Non-
appositional coordination involves cases that can be thought of as combining two clauses,
typically resulting in a plural verb. For example, "Tom and Mary are now ready" can be
understood as "Tom is now ready, and Mary is now ready." When conjoining’s present a single
entity, a singular verb is used, as in "The hammer and sickle were flying from a tall flagpole."
Conjoining’s expressing a mutual relationship also take a plural verb, like "Your problem and
mine are similar."

In appositional coordination, there is no implied reduction because the coordinated structures

refer to the same thing. Hence, a singular verb is used. For instance, "This temple of ugliness and
memorial to Victorian bad taste was erected at the Queen's express wish."

In some cases, there may be ambiguity when it's unclear whether the coordinated subjects are
one or two entities. Abstract nouns can also pose challenges in deciding between a singular or
plural verb.

When a single noun head has coordinated modifiers, it may imply two separate sentences,
allowing for a plural verb following a singular noun subject.

When the subject is a clause, coordination leads to a similar collapsing of subjects into a single
structure, and the choice between a singular or plural verb depends on the context.

The text also discusses concord involving "either...or" and "neither...nor," where the proximity
principle often determines the verb form.

In some cases, indefinite expressions of amount, such as "more than one," can be treated as
singular, taking a singular verb because "one" operates as the head of a singular noun phrase.

In colloquial speech, "neither...nor" may sometimes take a plural verb, and concord is generally
followed, although there are exceptions for certain phrases like "more than one."

When it comes to negative correlatives like "neither...nor," colloquial speech often leans toward
using them in a way that resembles the conjunction "and" more than "or" in terms of subject-verb
agreement. For example, in spoken language, it's more natural to say "Neither he nor his wife
have arrived" rather than the form that some people prefer, which is "Neither he nor his wife has
arrived."

Subject-complement concord

When a sentence has a subject that combines noun phrases using "and " we need to distinguish
between two types of coordination; appositional and non appositional. Non appositional
coordination involves combining two clauses, which typically results in a plural verb. For
example "Tom and Mary are ready" can be understood as "Tom's now ready and Mary is now
ready." When the conjunction represents an entity we use a verb, such, as in the sentence "The
hammer and sickle was flying from a tall flagpole." Conjunctions expressing a relationship also
take a plural verb like, in the sentence "Your problem and mine are similar."
In coordination there is no implied reduction because the coordinated structures refer to the
thing. Therefore we use a verb. For instance "This temple of ugliness and memorial to taste was
erected at the Queens express wish."

In cases there may be ambiguity when it's unclear whether the coordinated subjects represent one
or two entities. Abstract nouns can also present challenges when deciding between using a
singular or plural verb.
When there are words modifying a single noun it can suggest two separate sentences, which
allows for the use of a plural verb, after a singular noun subject.

In the case of a clause as the subject coordination results in combining subjects into one structure
and whether to use a singular or plural verb depends on the context.

The passage also covers agreement, with "either..... Neither...nor " where the verb form is often
determined by the principle of proximity.

Subject - verb concord

In English, subject - verb concord refers to the grammatical agreement between a subject and a
verb, where the forms of the words or phrases match in terms of number (singular , plural), and
person (1st, 2nd,3rd). In other words it means in subject - verb concord, the subject and the verb
should fit together properly.
For instance:
The girl comes.
The girls come.
Here, (girl) refers to a single girl, while (girls)refers to more than one girl. It tells us that a verb
should fit itself and match with the subject.
To support this (Geoffery Leech,2006,24) said that in English, the most important type of
concord is the number concord between subject and verb,which means a singular subject is
followed by a singular verb, and a plural subject followed by a plural verb.
Subject-verb agreement involves person as well as number, for 1 st person I,
although singular, requires eat, not eats. Eats occurs with 3rd person singular subject and eat with
all others: i.e. plurals, 1 st person I, or 2nd person you.(Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey k.
Pullum , 2006:88). We can say that the agreement between the person and the verb also must be
focused on, for example here:
I eat the apple.
She eats the apple.
In (c.) with 1 st person subject , the verb which will be used should be plural not singular, but
for 3 rd person singular subject the verb must be singular.

Collective noun concord

A collective noun is a type of noun which stands for a group or collection of people,
animals,objects, or other entities like( army, team, party). Regardless of referring to multiple
individuals or things. They are usually considered singular in grammar, but the use of collective
nouns is different in BrE and AmE.
In Br E, collective nouns notionally plural but grammatically singular(Randolph Quirk and
Sidney Greenbaum, 1973:177)
Depending on the context, collective nouns are singular or plural in BrE. It means they can be
used with plural or singular verbs to agree with each other.
For example:
The band sings very well.
My family have decided to go on a journey.

But in AmE, collective nouns are almost always used with the verb in the singular form to fit
with each other. In AmE usually we have a singular verb with collective nouns as a subject.
For example:
The group agrees that action is necessary.

Characteristics of agreement

Andrew Radford(1945),there exist four characteristics of agreement in English

Tense, Number, Gender , person.

Tense agreement
When it comes to English grammar, we've got three standard tenses: past, present, and
future. Each three primary tenses: past, present, and future. The simple present tense is
used for actions happening now, the simple past tense for actions that occurred in the
past, and the simple future tense for actions that will happen later. It's like a time machine
for verbs. tense agreement means that the verb in a sentence should match the tense of the
subject.
The past tense is employed to describe events that have already occurred. It helps us
recount past happenings. (e.g., I visited my grandparents last weekend).

The present tense is like a statement, conveying information about ongoing events or
continuous actions. It's like a declaration of what's happening in the present moment.
(e.g.,she walks to school every day).

The future tense explain things that have yet to happen; or is going to happen. (e.g., we
will have a party next Friday)

Person agreement

Person in grammatical concept refers to different perspectives or roles that

individuals can take in sentence. We have three main person’s, first person ( I,
We), second person (you), third person (he,she,it, they).
The use of each of this persons affects the form of pronouns,verbs, and other
elements in a sentence.

For example:-
a. There were read four books.
b. There was returned four books.
In (a) the auxiliary (were) is a third -person-plural form which agrees with the
nominative plural complement 'four books' . In (b) , the auxiliary is in the
agreemenless form 'was', and the complement of the passive participle is dative
plural.
(Andrew Radford,,1945)
And in other examples, here:
She eats her food.
The verb(eats) and( her) the possessive pronoun must agree in form with the
subject (She).

Number agreement
A number in the context of grammatical agreement, refers to a grammatical
category that shows whether a noun, pronoun, or verb is singular or plural.
Geoffrey Leech, 2006, in his book (A glossary of English grammar, page 74) defined
the number in this way:
It is the grammatical choice between singular (one) and plural (more than one).
In English, nouns, pronouns, determiners and present tense verbs can vary for
number, for example..
Student- students, I,we, those, take, takes.
Number agreement is a grammatical concept which refers to the agreement in the
sentence between different items, whether they are singular or plural to agree
with each other. It typically deals with subject and verb in a sentence, which these
two elements must match in number.
For instance here…
"He runs" has number agreement because the singular subject "He" matches the
singular verb "runs" and " They run" the plural subject matches with the plural
verb.
In number a singular subject requires a singular verb , a plural subject requires a
plural verb.
The window is open.
(Sing +Sing)

The windows are open.

( Plur +plur)

*The window are open.

(Sing+plur)

*The windows is open.

(Plur+sing)

Here(1,2) are grammatical in matching with each other in number but (3,4) they
are not matching with each other.
(Randolph Quirk, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, Jan Svartvik ,1972:312)

About other parts of speech like nouns and pronouns, they also must agree in
number in a sentence, either they are singular or plural.
Example:

The book is interesting. I can't put it down.

Here the pronoun (it) is singular and it agrees with the singular noun (the book) in
the sentence.

The children are playing. They are having fun.

The plural pronoun (they) agrees in number with the plural noun (the children).

Gender agreement

Gender in English grammar describes the masculine, feminine, or

neuter nature of a noun or pronoun. The majority of English nouns are
genderless, however some that refer to people and animals do. The way
words agree and interact within a sentence is influenced by the genders
assigned to nouns, pronouns, and adjectives. It is comparable to
classifying words according to their gender. Gender in English grammar,
then, is essentially about categorizing words and knowing how they
function in a sentence.

Give some examples of gender in grammar.

* Man – woman
* Boy – girl
* Chairman – chairwoman
* Stallion – mare
* Buck – doe
* Cock – hen

examples of gender agreement in sentences:

1. She is a talented singer. Her voice is amazing.
In this example, the pronoun "she" and the possessive adjective "her"
agree with the female noun "singer."

2. He is a strong athlete. His performance was outstanding.

Here, the pronoun "he" and the possessive adjective "his" match the
male noun "athlete."

3.The chef is talented and creative. She creates delicious dishes.

Here, the pronoun "she" matches the female noun "chef."