Date: Tue, 7 Nov 1995 02:11:10 -0500

From: Duane Price Thx23[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

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



In a message dated 95-11-07 00:25:54 EST, Larry writes:



"Of the fictions that have grown, one is...." Seems gramatically

correct to

me. GWW



Or, preserving the word order of the original,



One [of [THE FICTIONS that HAVE grown out of the constant interviewing of

Reed and other arbiters of r-w p c]] is ...



If I'm not mistaken, even prescriptivists (at least Safire) argue explicitly

for the logic of the plural in contexts like 'One of the women that work in

my

office', etc.



Larry



I'm in at the tailend of this one, but it seems like a fairly simple issue to

me:

"Of the fictions that have grown, one is...." is grammatically correct

because

the adjective clause "that have grown" modifies "fictions," which is a plural

noun; and the verb in any such clause must agree with the subject that it's

subordinating conjuction represents. You may only be referring to one

fiction, but many HAVE grown. Is it me, or is this one a no-brainer?



~The trick was to surrender to the flow...

-Trey Anastasio







Duane (Thx23[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]aol.com)