#Grammar #question :
Uncategorized
6
Posts
3
Posters
14
Views
-
When using "the party" in the sense of "the group of adventurers", should it accord with a singular or plural verb?
If you have an example, please support your view with a quote from #literature or a #RPG book in the comments.
-
@strangequark A collective noun takes a singular verb when the group acts as one unit (e.g., "The team is winning") and a plural verb when members act individually (e.g., "The team are arguing"). American English favors singular; British English allows plural for emphasis on individuals. #GrammarTips[1]
Sources
[1] Verb Agreement with Collective Singular Nouns https://www.touro.edu/departments/writing-center/tutorials/verb-agreement-with-collective-singular-nouns/ -
One of the things that made me hesitate is that the pronoun would usually be plural "they" rather than singular "it".
So long as you avoid the pronoun, singular works fine:
"The party arrives at the inn and orders beer."
But if you want to use a pronoun you have to go plural:
"The party arrive at the inn. They order beer."
You wouldn't say, "it orders beer"?
-
One of the things that made me hesitate is that the pronoun would usually be plural "they" rather than singular "it".
So long as you avoid the pronoun, singular works fine:
"The party arrives at the inn and orders beer."
But if you want to use a pronoun you have to go plural:
"The party arrive at the inn. They order beer."
You wouldn't say, "it orders beer"?
@strangequark I think the pronoun there is They though, I can't remember why and it might be different between US and British English. I think it's something to do with objects and ideas vs groups.
I suppose "A Party" can be either the idea of one or a group of people though.
-
@strangequark I think the pronoun there is They though, I can't remember why and it might be different between US and British English. I think it's something to do with objects and ideas vs groups.
I suppose "A Party" can be either the idea of one or a group of people though.
@strangequark For example "the party" (gaming term) is an it. It's a concept I think.
but "the party ordered drinks" is a they - group of people.
There's a subtlety about party in RPG I think there. You can legitimately use it as an IT, but also as a THEY depend on the level of abstraction.
I think "the party encounters a troll" is an it form
They attack the troll is the players/group.
-
@strangequark For example "the party" (gaming term) is an it. It's a concept I think.
but "the party ordered drinks" is a they - group of people.
There's a subtlety about party in RPG I think there. You can legitimately use it as an IT, but also as a THEY depend on the level of abstraction.
I think "the party encounters a troll" is an it form
They attack the troll is the players/group.
@Printdevil The idea of "the party" to mean a group of adventurers appeared in fantasy fiction before it appeared in gaming materials:
"The party went along... and they told stories"
-
undefined oblomov@sociale.network shared this topic on
Feed RSS
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
-
Thanks to everyone who responds or replies to my polls. They're one of my favourite parts of being on the Fediverse.
-
@zwol at this point I'd forego semantic, and just take easy and nice to look at. If I were writing a book today, I'd author it in Markdown, and then convert it to...whatever...for editing, or whatever at the very end. Before publishing, I ended up converting to an OpenOffice doc with the publishers template for editing, anyway (but I didn't originally write it to be published, it just worked out that way, so the OpenOffice step wasn't originally in the plans).
-
@ann3nova this is such a specific thing to obsess over, I love it. I drew my own pointers back then, and the one I used most looked pretty much like this. Same shape, but different colors.
-
@swelljoe I completely agree that it becomes tiring looking at all the tags. Not sure I've ever seen a markup language that was both semantic and pleasant to read in source form, though.
-
Le matematiche (libro)
@libri - La matematica è la stessa, ma la scuola russa la vede in modo diverso
-
@zwol I wrote a book in Docbook (SGML first, and then converted to XML later) about 25ish years ago, with a custom vim configuration. It wasn't pleasant. Yes, the tools were bad, but also it's just really sort of tiring looking at all the tags and the processing toolchain was dire.
I was using a LaTeX-based toolchain for the PDF generation, I don't remember details, but Sebastian Rahtz was super helpful when I ran into mysterious issues.
I wouldn't do it again. Different time, different me.
-
@jannem Yeah, like, considered as a thing-in-itself apart from the tools, the major complaint I have about DocBook is that the documentation of _how to write a book using DocBook_ is inadequate.
Many people have very similar complaints about LaTeX.
-
@Esoteria you might be a little too young for this classic scene from "WKRP in Cincinnati".
