Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 00:05:08 -0400

From: Jeutonne Brewer BREWERJ[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IRIS.UNCG.EDU

Subject: Re: "One of the x that has/have"?



Sorry I don't have the exact sentence in front of me, but I remember a rule from my high school (prescriptive) English class. For "One of the fictions" have/has the verb should be has because the head noun (or simple subject) is "one." The plural in the prepositional phrase does not serve as the controller for subject-verb agreement. In other words, I remember the rule the you do, Bethany.



However, I think this is an area where change is taking place. It seems that the noun closest to the verb often controls agreement. In a case like this syntax seems to control rather than semantics. I suspect there is much variation in the examples like this.

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* Jeutonne P. Brewer BREWERJ[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IRIS.UNCG.EDU *

* Department of English *

* U of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412 *

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