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From: keesan@bbncca.ARPA (Morris Keesan)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Singular/Plural - (nf)
Message-ID: <582@bbncca.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 15-Feb-84 18:12:39 EST
Article-I.D.: bbncca.582
Posted: Wed Feb 15 18:12:39 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Feb-84 02:34:09 EST
References: <1578@pur-ee.UUCP>
Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma.
Lines: 29

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    Yes, the sentence "The space shuttle was one of the topics which {was|were}
discussed in class this week." is grammatically correct with either verb, and
each verb forces a different parsing.  There is a subtle(?) difference in the
meaning of the two sentences.  The sentence

The space shuttle was one of the(topics which were discussed in class this week)

says, "The space shuttle and other topics were discussed in class this week."
The sentence

The space shuttle was (one of the topics) which was discussed in class this week

says, "The space was one of the topics.  The space shuttle was discussed in
class this week," but it does not say whether any other topics were discussed
this week.  The implication by omission is then that the speaker does not know
how many topics were discussed.  If it were known that the space shuttle was
the only topic discussed, the sentence could be

The space shuttle was the only one of the topics which was discussed in class
this week.

    The decision as to which form is "correct" devolves to a decision as to
what the intended meaning is.
-- 
					Morris M. Keesan
					{decvax,linus,wjh12,ima}!bbncca!keesan
					keesan @ BBN-UNIX.ARPA