The Vine: July 9, 2002
Dear Sars,
On a recent trip to England during World Cup season, I discovered a difference in usage that drove me nuts. They insist on referring to national teams in the mulitiple person sense. I have seen this on TV, in books, and in newspapers, so it’s apparently standard usage there — “England have won” or “If Brazil win” where we would say “If Brazil wins” or “England has won.” I tried this out substituting the Green Bay Packers. Sure, I’ve heard and read “The Packers have,” but never “Green Bay have,” always “Green Bay has.” Do you or any have your readers have insight into this difference?
Even more perplexing, I now am considering our own country. In the country where I now live, “U.S.A.” is feminine, but the United States is plural. How is it correct in the U.S. — “The United States is,” or “The United States are”? “America is” or “America are”? “The U.S.A. has,” or “The U.S.A. have”? If you refer to the U.S. with a pronoun, is it “she,” “it,” or “they”?
“The United States are” seems correct to me, but then I think I’ve heard presidents say “The United States is.”
Signed,
Who Stand(s) United?
Dear Who,
The answer to your first question is that it’s a variant between British English and American English. You can also find it in the British tabloid/music press, referring to bands — “Oasis are touring,” for example. Here, we’d say, “Oasis is touring.” Neither one is right or wrong; it’s just a regional difference.
But the question of “grouping” the United States is a different one. I don’t remember where I heard this (I think the Ken Burns Civil War miniseries), but prior to the American Civil War, politicians, diplomats, official correspondence and the like referred to the United States as just that — states, plural. After the War Between The States, the usage shifted to the singular, and the United States became an entity: “The United States has agreed to support blah blah.” Perhaps that’s apocryphal, but Garner says that common usage employed the plural circa 1850, citing Hamilton and The Federalist Papers; he then states that the plural usage had gone out of vogue by the end of the last century. So the Civil War thing could explain it.
Whatever the reason, the U.S. now takes a singular.
I have no idea what’s going on with the gendering of the country. Garner doesn’t have a note on it, and a brief hunt on Google didn’t turn anything up. It’s my understanding that “the United States” is not gendered, while “America” is feminine. That may have something to do with the personification of Liberty we’re so fond of here, but I think you usually see the gendering in more patriotic prose rather than as the standard usage.
I refer to the U.S. as “we,” usually, or “those idiots in Washington,” but I think either “it” (to imply the country) or “they” (to imply the idiots running it) is acceptable. “She” strikes me as a little weird, especially if you aren’t from the States.
A side note not addressed in the letter — I’ve tried in the last few years to always call the U.S. “the U.S.” or “the States” and not “America.” I’ve gotten busted on for it, too, for having a Brit-Can English affectation, but if every other country on earth calls us “the U.S.” or “the States,” and if we aren’t really “America” on our own, strictly speaking, which we aren’t…I just wonder how many other Americans (or “United Statesians” or whatever) bother making the distinction.
Sarah —
I’d really like to get more into baseball. The closest thing I have to a local team is the K.C. Royals and, well…they suck. A lot. I’d really like to be a fan (hell, before I knew any better, I wanted to be George Brett when I grew up. Shut. Up. I was five, okay?) but it just seems pointless, since they never improve and for all I know they might be on the chopping block sooner than later.
My question is this: How can I find a team to be a fan of? Got any recommendations? What/who should I be watching, reading, surfing to, talking to? My upstairs neighbor, who is a good friend of mine, really knows the game but doesn’t seem to have a team he cares about. My fiancé was a soccer-playing baseball-hating pinko Commie growing up who has only recently started to play or enjoy the game. I think baseball is a sport I’d like to care about, but I have no idea how to go about selecting a team to follow. Any advice?
Thanks in advance,
Take Me Out To A Ballgame…Any Ballgame
Dear Ballgame,
A lot of teams suck. It doesn’t mean you can’t root for them. For years I rooted for a team that contained Kevin McReynolds and Daryl Boston. Voluntarily. (That probably won’t mean much to you, but anyone reading this who followed the game back in 1990 just clutched their foreheads and said “ew, gross” out loud.) I don’t see anything wrong with rooting for the Royals; it’s a crap team playing in a crap division, but they play in a pretty nice park, and that club will contend again…maybe not soon, but it’ll come back. George Brett is a Hall of Famer, and the Royals have several World Championships, so the team isn’t hopeless, historically speaking. Well, their trades involving pitchers have often suggested mild mental retardation, but every team has issues.
And even if you had the misfortune to live in Devil Rays country — okay, I don’t want to get all Roger Angell on you here, but I think you have to follow baseball because you like baseball, not because you want a winner, or it’s a chore. If you only want a team that wins, root for the Yankees or Atlanta; that’ll give you the best odds long-term. But I’ve never come at the game from that angle. A baseball season is long, man. If you pick a team and it wins, great, but when the team stops winning, which it will, 162 games is an arid stretch of highway if you don’t love the game. You have to love the game. You have to love it even when your team is playing it like they’ve got balloons for hands…and you have to love the team then, too.
You can’t love a team until you get to know it. You won’t recognize the names at first. You won’t get much out of the box score. It takes time; you have to commit to watching the games, listening to the commentary, reading the game summary in the paper the next day. At first, it’s kind of opaque and boring. But in a few months, if you stick with it, you’ll know enough to make it fun, to groan authoritatively when you disapprove of a pitching change, to say “that’s my boy” when someone goes yard. And in a year or two, you’ll know it cold — who does what when, and how well; who’s streaky and who’s reliable; who’s going to ignore the bunt sign, or take it but fuck it up every time; which relievers should occasion a moan of “oh no, not that guy, anyone but that guy.”
But any team you pick is going to have a .400 year eventually — six or seven of them in a row, even. If you love baseball and you want a team to call your own, go with the Royals. If it’s a guaranteed winner you want, buy stock in Microsoft.
[7/9/02]
Tags: grammar
