“I knew it, I just knew it!”
“What?”
“That you have it in for the sadly departed.”
“I have?”
“No, no, I mean British authorities; that settles it!”
“That settles what?”
“Confirming this vile persecutory attitude. After all, it’s not just The Independent – it’s also The Sunday Times!”
“What have you found now?”
“This!”
“There is nothing to stop homeowners who have been basic-rate taxpayers all their lives generating higher-rate liabilities when they die.”
“But I promise you they didn’t mean it like this.”
“So you keep saying; do these newspapers mean anything they say?”
“Naturally, but …”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“Trust me. And I’d prefer the distributive singular here.”
“Sure: if you have to have such a distributive law, don’t introduce any more.”
“No, no, I’d prefer the singular ‘life’.”
“But they were talking about more than one life.”
“Yes, but I would still use a singular noun. It’s called ‘the distributive singular’ because we interpret it in a plural sense.”
“We do?”
“Yep; listen, what I would have written is this.”
“There is nothing to stop the estates of homeowners who have been basic-rate taxpayers all their life incurring higher-rate death liabilities.”
“If you are absolutely sure …”
“Cross my heart and hope to die.”
“Don’t: you might incur higher-rate liabilities!”
“No, no, it’s just a saying. But our esteemed Sunday Times does seem to get a bit muddled over matters pertaining to expiry.”
“I’m not surprised it’s about to expire: writing such tosh.”
“No – not its expiry.”
“How do you mean?”
“Listen to this.”
“We found that provided we could get them started six weeks before death they could recover.”
“Started on what?”
“Anti-retroviral drugs – for Aids.”
“But … it’s … how… how did they know it would be exactly six weeks? That’s … that’s impossible. Plus, they didn’t die!”
“You don’t say.”
“I do!”
“No, no, it’s another saying. I think that what they were attempting to communicate was this.”
We found that, provided we could get them started sufficiently early, they could recover.
“A-a-a-a, that’s more like it.”
PS
This post alludes to the quote given in Daily Frolic 12, How Researchers Earn a Living, and published on 12th November 2014.
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I know you are correct but life does sound funny in that sentence. I think many of us would have used lives. Distributive singular, who knew?
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I realise this, Deborah, and must admit to being slightly provocative there. My own discovery of the ‘distributive singular’ was a revelation, but it is actually quite common in English. I have a better example from The Economist, which wrote: “They are the ones who turned blind eyes to the concoction of credit …”. I understand English would favour “who turned a blind eye” – even though this clause has the plural subject. Sorry about this, but I am mad about grammar – how sad is this? 🙂
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Thanks again, Deborah. As a result of your comment, I have modified this post and written the next one (no 14), which is dedicated to you. Best wishes, Anna
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