2192: Plurals that aren't Plural Dec 15, 2020

This is the final post of Pluralization Week. To see the whole collection together, visit this collection.

Notional agreement, also discussed under the broader label of synesis, is a phenomenon in which a grammatical construction will take on number or gender when relevant, which is not strictly grammatical, but which is otherwise implicit from the concept. For instance, in English plurals are often treated as singular or vice versa depending on how it is considered. Take for instance the seemingly contradictory grammar:

The British government are divided.

Great Britain is a wealthy nation.

This is especially common when there is something that distances the subject from the verb, such as:

*The number of people moving to big cities are increasing

*Five hundred dollars is a lot of money