Notional Agreement Meaning

Synesis is a traditional grammatical/rhetoric term derived from Greek (originally means «union, encounter, meaning, consciousness, discernment, knowledge, spirit, reason»). It`s just an old contract. Nothing fictitious about it. But sometimes things aren`t that simple. In these cases, we rely on meaning – the term behind words – and we base our grammar on that. Hence the idea of a fictitious agreement. If our teachers have never taught us these rules, how do we know they exist? «We don`t know who first realized that a fictitious chord exists as a powerful force in English grammar,» says Merriam-Webster`s Dictionary of English Usage, «but it must be a fairly new discovery. The grammars of the 18th century never rushed there, although their examples of correction showed that they were widely followed. Fictional concordance, as the people of Merriam explain, refers to any number of situations where a subject and a verb do not have the simple relationship we usually see. You know how easily the verb stands out in «A cat sleeps» and «Two cats sleep.» If we do not reach a formal agreement, we are going to a fictitious agreement. For a discussion on the agreement with collective subversives (in American English and English English) see American English.

Although the fictitious chord is used more often in British English than in American English, a certain amount is naturally in any variety of English. American style guides give advice, for example to fictitious chords for phrases like a number of, many and overall. The AMA Manual of Style states:[3] «The number is singular and a number is plural»[3] (so that the number of mosquitoes is increasing, but a number of brands of mosquito repellent are available) and «the same goes for the sum and total»[3] (if the total number has increased, but a total of 28 volunteers have filed applications [not]). It is the same concept that is covered by the Chicago style (16th edition) to «5.9 Mass Nomen followed by a preposition»[4], but not all relevant nouns (including «number») are mass nouns. Some frequent cases of fictitious agreement concern (1) collective nouns (z.B»family»); (2) plural expressions of quantity («five years»); (3) pluralistic nomads («United States»); and (4) a few units composed with and («Bed and Breakfast»).