Date:  Tue, 7 Nov 1995 08:41:57 -0800

From:  Allen Maberry <maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]U.WASHINGTON.EDU>

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



I might interpret the sentence a little differently:



On Tue, 7 Nov 1995, E. Wayles Browne wrote:



> >...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.

> And why does it not, pray tell? Let's look at a couple of simpler scenarios.

> 1) I have three cats. One of them is sitting on the porch. He is named Tiger.

> (The other two, let's say, are named Murka and Neko,

> respectively.)

> So I say: One of the cats that is sitting on the porch is named Tiger.

>



I would understand the sentence to imply that: there are cats on the porch,

some are sitting, one of the sitting cats is named Tiger.

For scenario 1 I think I would say simply "The cat that is sitting on the

porch is named Tiger."

Am I missing something?



Allen

maberry[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]u.washington.edu