NL888 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
Should "a variety of rationalisations proliferate" be "a variety of rationalisations proliferates"?
Context:
There can therefore be little justification for a physicians' strike, no matter what the provocation. And the history of physicians' strkes the world over has shown that once these are judged acceptable, they are used for trivial, as well as for extraordinary, reasons, and a variety of rationalisations, often hypocritical, proliferate.
There can therefore be little justification for a physicians' strike, no matter what the provocation. And the history of physicians' strkes the world over has shown that once these are judged acceptable, they are used for trivial, as well as for extraordinary, reasons, and a variety of rationalisations, often hypocritical, proliferate.
Top answer
No, proliferate refers to a variety , singular.
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So we have to use the sigular form: proliferates?
The author made a grammatical mistake.
The author made a grammatical mistake.
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Actually, this issue isn't straightforward, and I should have given a better answer. In AmE a collective noun is normally followed by a singular verb. In BrE it is quite common to use a plural verb with a collective noun, so to the British author of this article proliferate was entirely appropriate.
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