[ExI] Whimsy or error?

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2008/8/25 Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com>:

> And Damien replied
>
>> I find "none of these politicians are worthy to run a 7-11 store" far more
>> horrid, yet almost everyone does it. I *think* that if one were to change
>> that to "not one of these politicians are worthy to run a 7-11 store",
>> people might look askance, but maybe not.
>
> Yes, surely a larger percentage of people would pick up
> the error in the latter. Embarrasing to relate, I make the
> former error a lot.
>
> But consider:  fill in the following sentence, i.e., what is
> the correct form for sentence # 4 here?
>
> #1  There <is|are> six people in the boat.
> #2  There <is|are> four people in the boat.
> #3  There <is|are> two people in the boat.
> #4  There <is|are> zero people in the boat.

Six of the politicians are worthy.
One of the politicians is worthy.
Not one of the politicians is worthy.
None (=not one) of the politicians is worthy.

But:
Zero politicians are worthy.
Zero of the politicians are worthy. (awkward)
No (=zero) politicians are worthy.
-or-
No (=not one) politician is worthy.
-or perhaps-
None (=zero) of the politicians are worthy.

The last is wrong if "none" is forced to have its original meaning of
"not one".

Interestingly, it appears that one is grammatically singular but zero
is grammatically plural!


-- 
Stathis Papaioannou