Pedants' Paradise

[french frank]

My little Chrome AI friend came up with this:

There isn't much information about the origin of the name Criterion Theatre right now, but here's some related information about the theater.

Try again tomorrow: we might have something more by then :-)

[LMcD]

Try again tomorrow: we might have something more by then :-)

BBC News headline: 'BBC knew Huw Edwards had been arrested over serious offences in November' - which is about as ambiguous ('misleading' might be a better word, perhaps) as you can get, I would think.

[Pulcinella]

Having said I'm happy with singular media, here's an instance where I'd certainly have used a plural verb, as different social media are presumably intended:

'A polarisation engine’: how social media has created a ‘perfect storm’ for UK’s far-right riots

(The Guardian)

[AuntDaisy]

The Grauniad...

"A show of community as residents hand out flowers outside the Southport mosque as a gester of friendship after the violent attacks"

[french frank]

Having said I'm happy with singular media, here's an instance where I'd certainly have used a plural verb, as different social media are presumably intended:

'A polarisation engine’: how social media has created a ‘perfect storm’ for UK’s far-right riots

(The Guardian)

We seem to be in a situation of dither, like 'the government'. The government is united in its determination ..., the government is split on whether .... But, the government are planning a new initiative, the government have taken steps to deal with ...

I think I may have moved round to the concept of the influence of social media as being a contemporary phenomenon (rather than phenomena). So social media is a curse of our times, single in its destructive force. Though some of them seem harmless enough on the surface

[Pulcinella]

We seem to be in a situation of dither, like 'the government'. The government is united in its determination ..., the government is split on whether .... But, the government are planning a new initiative, the government have taken steps to deal with ...

I think I may have moved round to the concept of the influence of social media as being a contemporary phenomenon (rather than phenomena). So social media is a curse of our times, single in its destructive force. Though some of them seem harmless enough on the surface

Singular concept, I agree, but in this context it's more various/different platforms of social media have...... (imho).
But yes, very like the government, ha ha! Singular when determined, plural when one department can blame another!

[gurnemanz]

Although plural in form "media" has become a collective noun like "team", "government", "police", "staff" etc. They can be thought of as a unit and followed by a singular verb or individuals and followed by a plural verb.

English has the flexibility to communicate this meaning and think of a noun from this semantic angle and override the usual syntactic requirement of singular noun + singular verb. German, for instance, is strict on this. We happily say "The team are ..." but no German would say "Die Mannschaft sind ...". I think most languages are similar.

[kernelbogey]

Although plural in form "media" has become a collective noun like "team", "government", "police", "staff" etc. They can be thought of as a unit and followed by a singular verb or individuals and followed by a plural verb.

English has the flexibility to communicate this meaning and think of a noun from this semantic angle and override the usual syntactic requirement of singular noun + singular verb. German, for instance, is strict on this. We happily say "The team are ..." but no German would say "Die Mannschaft sind ...". I think most languages are similar.

And 'Liverpool sell Joe Bloggs'; and 'the Halle rise to their feet'.

The bottom line is that in neither case can there be any confusion, nicht wahr?

[french frank]

English has the flexibility to communicate this meaning and think of a noun from this semantic angle and override the usual syntactic requirement of singular noun + singular verb.

I think we had a discussion about this a few years ago. Nouns, adjectives, adverbs can happily conjugate as verbs or whatever. The flexibility is with the speaker and hearer. But me no buts - ignore the do's and don't's. Mutual undertanding (even with typos) can be arrived at in many ways.

[gurnemanz]

I think we had a discussion about this a few years ago. Nouns, adjectives, adverbs can happily conjugate as verbs or whatever. The flexibility is with the speaker and hearer. But me no buts - ignore the do's and don't's. Mutual undertanding (even with typos) can be arrived at in many ways.

Probably more than once ...

[eighthobstruction]

....some of the police body camera footage of recent riots should be interesting (I suspect)....perhaps Forum members Pedants Paradise could be issued with such like cameras to bring us scuzenglish straight from the hot streets....(no need to flourish England flags while collecting exibits - this is optional)

[french frank]

It used to be the case that if you wanted to ask someone to do something the form was either: "Will you please ...?" or to avoid any hint of peremptoriness: "Would you please ... ?" (Answer Yes or No); alternatively "I wonder if you would be so kind as to ...".

This now seems frequently to take the form "May you please ..." (not as yet "Might you please ..." with the possible answer "I might do if so inclined ..."). But how does 'May you...?' mean anything?

[vinteuil]

It used to be the case that if you wanted to ask someone to do something the form was either: "Will you please ...?" or to avoid any hint of peremptoriness: "Would you please ... ?" (Answer Yes or No); alternatively "I wonder if you would be so kind as to ...".

This now seems frequently to take the form "May you please ..." (not as yet "Might you please ..." with the possible answer "I might do if so inclined ..."). But how does 'May you...?' mean anything?

I have not yet encountered 'May you please... '. I shall report back. Might it be a local (Bristow?) phenomenon?

.

[french frank]

I have not yet encountered 'May you please... '. I shall report back. Might it be a local (Bristow?) phenomenon?

I don't think so. I've only started to hear it recently, mainly from a younger generation than mine own.

Others seems to have encountered it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ENGLISH/comments/rri6e6/may_you_please/

[french frank]

A bit on the lines of the singular case of social media: an article I was reading today stated: “Indeed, less than half of the possible 46 paintings that Mabel is thought to have completed are currently accounted for…”

This seems to want it both ways. Either “Fewer than half […] are accounted for” or “Less than half […] is accounted for”. Classically, since half of 46 is 23, it would be ‘fewer are’ though I wouldn’t quibble over ‘Less than one/a half is’ since logically less than one half might be one quarter or one eighth, hence requiring a singular verb (percentages are a different matter).

A difference between this and examples with ‘media’ is that one can have 46 paintings or one painting, the equivalent being '46 media or one medium', rather than one media (or mutatis mutandis ‘46 mediums and one medium’).