Synesis
Encyclopedia
Synesis is a traditional grammatical/rhetorical term derived from Greek (originally meaning "unification, meeting, sense, conscience, insight, realization, mind, reason"). A constructio kata synesin (or constructio ad sensum in Latin) means a grammatical construction in which a word takes the gender
or 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
, instead of the morphosyntactic form.
Example:
Here, the plural pronoun they co-refers 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 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; so:
Notional agreement for collective nouns is very common in British English. It is less customary in American English, but may sometimes be found after phrases of the type "a collective noun of plural nouns", e.g.,
The use of a singular or plural verb after the phrases "one of those who" and "one of those things that" has troubled prescriptivists, with both choices garnering their detractors. More descriptive style guides have accepted both as correct.
Other words originally plural have long been notionally singular that they are always followed by a singular verb: news, means, and mathematics.
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
or number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
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
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
, instead of the morphosyntactic form.
Example:
- If the band is popular, they will play next month.
Here, the plural pronoun they co-refers 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 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; so:
- 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, with their own different policy views).
Notional agreement for collective nouns is very common in British English. It is less customary in American English, but may sometimes be found after phrases of the type "a collective noun of plural nouns", e.g.,
- ... a multitude of elements were intertwined (New York Review of Books).
- ... the majority of all the shareholdings are in the hands of women. (DaedalusDaedalus (journal)Dædalus is a peer-reviewed academic journal founded in 1955 as the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. It is published by MIT Press on behalf of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Each issue addresses a theme with essays on the arts, sciences, and humanities. Special...
). - ... a handful of bathers were bobbing about in the waves. (Philip RothPhilip RothPhilip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...
).
The use of a singular or plural verb after the phrases "one of those who" and "one of those things that" has troubled prescriptivists, with both choices garnering their detractors. More descriptive style guides have accepted both as correct.
Other words originally plural have long been notionally singular that they are always followed by a singular verb: news, means, and mathematics.
See also
- American and British English differences: Formal vs. notional agreement
- Formal agreement, the opposite of notional.
- Collective noun, whose notion is plural but form singular.
- Singular they, whose notion is singular but form plural.
- ElohimElohimElohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...
, a Hebrew word whose number varies.