taxons and orthography

[Thomas Lammers]

At 07:06 AM 3/8/00 -0700, Robin Leech wrote:

> > The Medusozoa are the sister group of the Anthozoa ...
> > Medusozoa is the sistergroup of Anthozoa ...
> > The Medusozoa is the sister group of the Anthozoa ...
> >     THE FIRST ONE IS GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT.  "MEDUSOZOA" IS BEING
> USED AS A
>COLLECTIVE NOUN, AND SINCE IT IS BEING TREATED AS A SINGLE ENTITY, THE
>VERB "IS" MUST BE USED.  MY PREFERENCE IS FOR THE SECOND ONE IF YOU ARE
>GIVING A LECTURE, AND THE THIRD ONE IF PUBLISHING.  THOUGH THE THIRD ONE
>READS OK, IT SOUNDS "STIFF" IF I READ IT ALOUD.

I disagree.  A plural noun, as Medusozoa surely is grammatically, takes a
plural verb, irrespective of usage.  If you want a singular verb, you have
to put the name in apposition to the rank: "The class [?] Medusozoa is ..."
or "Medusozoa are ..."  It doesn't matter so much how it sounds; there is
so much bad grammar slipping by that all sorts of bad usage "sounds good"
to our ear.




Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium (OSH)
Department of Biology and Microbiology
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901-8640 USA

e-mail:                     lammers at uwosh.edu
phone (office):         920-424-7085
phone (herbarium):  920-424-1002
fax:                         920-424-1101

Plant systematics; classification, nomenclature, evolution, and
biogeography of the Campanulaceae s. lat.
-----------------------------------------------------------
"Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that stood his ground."
                                                 -- Anonymous