On Tue, 28 Jun 2011, Jonathan Blake wrote:
On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 3:44 PM, Simon Osborne <outspaced@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:The Dark Crusade: (er) 166: The garrison is thrown into a state of near-panic as they -> The garrison is thrown into a state of near-panic as it [LeRoy McSwain Feb 2007] <http://www.projectaon.org/test/en/xhtml-less-simple/lw/15tdc/title.htm#sect166>I'd reject this one based on the collective noun being able to take either a singular or plural verb.
The issue I have with the text as written is that the sentence starts "The garrison is" (singular verb, indicating the garrison is acting as one) and then refers to the garrison as "they" (plural pronoun, indicating the mambers of the garrison are acting as individuals). We should either change it to Leroy's suggestion or conversely change the beginning of the sentence to "The garrison are".
Ben
