> Skip to content
FEATURED:
  • Student Success Resource Center
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
  • News
  • Advice
  • The Review
  • Data
  • Current Issue
  • Virtual Events
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Career Resources
Sign In
ADVERTISEMENT
Lingua Franca-Circular Icon

Lingua Franca

Language and writing in academe.

  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Show more sharing options
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • Copy Link URLCopied!
  • Print

Merriam-Webster, Heal Thyself!

By  Geoffrey K. Pullum
September 5, 2018
merriam

An email correspondent pointed out to me a striking lapse in the preface to a much-admired reference work, Merriam-Webster’s Concise Dictionary of English Usage (2002):

A number of common spelling problems are also discussed briefly. While the emphasis of this work is on usage in writing, a small number of articles is devoted to problems of pronunciation.

We’re sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network. Please make sure your computer, VPN, or network allows javascript and allows content to be delivered from c950.chronicle.com and chronicle.blueconic.net.

Once javascript and access to those URLs are allowed, please refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

merriam

An email correspondent pointed out to me a striking lapse in the preface to a much-admired reference work, Merriam-Webster’s Concise Dictionary of English Usage (2002):

A number of common spelling problems are also discussed briefly. While the emphasis of this work is on usage in writing, a small number of articles is devoted to problems of pronunciation.

Mysteriously, the agreement of the main verbs in the two sentences is different: are in the first, is in the second.

What, in general, is the correct agreement form to go with a number of Xs, where Xs is a plural noun phrase (NP)? Writers often worry about this. And if they turn to Merriam-Webster’s Concise Dictionary of English Usage for guidance, they will find that the entry on number (Page 532) is unequivocal: With a subject NP like a number of Xs, “All commentators agree that the plural verb ... is correct.” They could have added that generally the singular is incorrect.

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (CGEL; Chapter 5, Page 502) is more explicit, citing A number of spots have appeared as grammatical and *A number of spots has appeared as ungrammatical. In a footnote the sentence a number of illegal drug operations has been uncovered is quoted from an Australian newspaper, but such sentences are stated to be “too rare ... to qualify as an established variant in Standard English"; they are “hypercorrections attributable to overzealous application of the simple agreement rule.”

The “simple agreement rule” is of course the one that would apply to A number has been written on the box, where a singular NP referring to a quantity or number takes singular agreement. But with subjects like a number of people or a small number of articles, plural agreement is the norm: The phrase a number of illegal drug operations is not talking about a number; it’s talking about drug operations — more than one of them.

ADVERTISEMENT

CGEL defines a small class of number-transparent collective nouns, including bunch, couple, flock, herd, lot, majority, number, and maybe a dozen others (CGEL, Page 503). When the head of an indefinite NP is a singular number-transparent noun, it can allow a plural NP complement in a following of-phrase to dictate plural number for the whole NP. This is largely obligatory:

ADVERTISEMENT

A couple of members have complained.
*A couple of members has complained.
A slew of problems have arisen.
*A slew of problems has arisen.

And in some cases, using singular agreement would sound completely insane:

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

A lot of people disagree.
*A lot of people disagrees.
A bunch of guys were sunning themselves by the pool.
*A bunch of guys was sunning itself by the pool.

It seems clear that the copy editor for the 2002 concise edition of Merriam-Webster’s wonderful reference book missed a hypercorrection that someone accidentally inserted into the preface. Interestingly, the earlier book Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (1994) had a slightly different wording:

A number of common spelling problems are also discussed briefly. While the emphasis of this work is properly on usage in writing, a small group of articles has been devoted to problems of pronunciation.

Here there is no hypercorrection. It is perfectly reasonable to say of a group of articles that the whole group is devoted to pronunciation; but it’s not reasonable to say that of a number. In CGEL’s terms, number is much more clearly number-transparent than group. (Group is optionally number-transparent — a small group of articles are would also have been acceptable.)

ADVERTISEMENT

Some time between 1994 and 2002, a reviser of the preface unwisely replaced group by number. We don’t know who or why. But so scrupulous is Merriam-Webster’s crediting of writers, editors, copy editors, revisers, reviewers, bibliographers, proofreaders, etc., that the preface does identify the cognizant copy editor.

It was John M. Morse. I remember having a friendly and enjoyable conversation with him at the Merriam-Webster stand in the book exhibit at a meeting of the Modern Language Association in 2003. It gives me no pleasure to finger him as the culprit.

Sorry, John, but an inadvisable wording change led to a sharply unacceptable hypercorrection that you should have caught. At the next reprint, make it “a small number of articles are devoted to problems of pronunciation.”

(By the way, notice that I’m being entirely prescriptive here. Anyone who thinks I’m opposed to prescription of correct usage is mistaken. I just think prescriptive usage authorities should prescribe according to the genuine rules of English, not spurious rules like the ones I discuss here and here and many other places. In the case at hand the genuine rule determines that a small number of articles should trigger plural agreement.)

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
    Explore
    • Get Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Find a Job
  • The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
    The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • DEI Commitment Statement
    • Write for Us
    • Talk to Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • User Agreement
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Site Map
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
    Customer Assistance
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise With Us
    • Post a Job
    • Advertising Terms and Conditions
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
  • Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
    Subscribe
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Institutional Subscriptions
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Manage Your Account
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2023 The Chronicle of Higher Education
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin