Proximity Concord in English

"Proximity concord," also called "attraction," denotes the situation where a finite V agrees in number with a nearby, usually preceding, N rather than with the head of the NP which is the true grammatical subject. It is to be distinguished from "notional concord," in which the V agrees with an underlying implication of the subject rather than with its surface form, as in the case of collective Ns & closely bound coordinations of the "ham & eggs" sort. It is also distinct from cases where Ns of quantity followed by of-phrases act as plural quantifiers (eg, a lot of people, a number of reasons). It also differs from cases of agreement of the copular V with a predicate nominal rather than the grammatical subject (The thing these meetings have in common are visitors from the LGW). Proximity concord proper is purely grammatical, with a nearby subordinated N overriding the true subject & taking over the V concord (The full impact of the cuts haven't hit hard yet). Various examples are cited, drawn from educated speech & writing, & the hypothesis is presented that the noticeable increase of this phenomenon in current Eng is a symptom of the ultimate loss of the last vestige (except in the V to be) of subject-V number concord in Eng. 7 References. AA