linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

, synesis () is a traditional grammatical/rhetorical term referring to

agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus, a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of law ** Meeting ...

(the change of a

word form In linguistics, morphology () is the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language. It analyzes the structure of words and parts of words such as stems, root words, prefixes, and suffixes. Morph ...

based on words relating to it) due to meaning. A ''constructio kata synesin'' ( la, constructio ad sensum) is a grammatical construction in which a

word A word is a basic element of language that carries an objective or practical meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no conse ...

takes the

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual number ...

not of the word with which it should regularly agree, but of some other word ''implied'' in that word. It is effectively an agreement of words with the

sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the world through the detection of stimuli. (For example, in the human body, the brain which is part of the central nervous system re ...

, instead of the morphosyntactic form, a type of form-meaning mismatch. Examples: :''One hundred dollars is the cost of rent.'' :''If the band are popular, they will play next month.'' Here, the plural pronoun ''they'' and the plural verb form ''are'' co-refer with the singular noun ''band''. One can think of the antecedent of ''they'' as an implied plural noun such as ''musicians''. Such use in

English grammar English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts. This article describes a generalized, present-day Standard English – a form of spee ...

is often called notional agreement (or notional concord), because the agreement is with the ''notion'' of what the noun means, rather than the strict grammatical ''form'' of the noun (the normative formal agreement). The term situational agreement is also found, since the same word may take a singular or plural verb depending on the interpretation and intended emphasis of the speaker or writer: :''The government is united.'' (Implication: it is a single cohesive body, with a single agreed policy). :''The government are divided.'' (Implication: it is made up of different individuals or factions, with their own different policy views). Other examples of notional agreement for collective nouns involve some uses of the words ''team'' and ''none''. Although notional agreement is more commonly used in

British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadl ...

than in

American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...

, some amount is

natural Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

in any variety of English. American

style guide A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...

s give advice, for example, on notional agreement for phrases such as ''a number of'', ''a lot of'', and ''a total of''. The '' AMA Manual of Style'' says, "''The number'' is singular and ''a number of'' is plural" (thus ''the number of mosquitoes is increasing'' but ''a number of brands of mosquito repellent are available'') and "The same is true for ''the total'' and ''a total of''" (thus ''the total was growing'' but ''a total of 28 volunteers have submitted applications'' ot *''has submitted''. This is the same concept that is covered by Chicago style (16th ed) at "5.9 Mass noun followed by a prepositional phrase", but not all of the relevant nouns (including "number") are

mass noun In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elemen ...

References

{{Reflist Grammatical gender Grammatical number Figures of speech

See also

References