Collective Nouns: Singular or Plural?

Q. Why do we now see treatment of "couple" (as in a married couple) as a plural noun?
— Richard C. Coleman

Q.From today's Times online: A team of travel editors and writers from The New York Times uncover affordable places to stay, eat, drink and shop in the Caribbean. Explore all 13 islands.

Times editors and writers should stay at home until they learn that a collective singular noun should be followed by the appropriate predicate, in this case: A team...uncovers. I've spotted this error so often that I finally concluded that you folks have simply forgotten what a collective noun is and that the subject dictates the verb to be used.
— Jon Swan

Philip B. Corbett:

A.Both of these queries involve the use of collective nouns — words like team, couple, group. In a sentence, should they be construed as singular or plural?

It's a trickier grammatical proposition than one might think. As the esteemed Times editor and language expert Theodore M. Bernstein wrote (in "Watch Your Language"): "Whether to treat collective nouns as singular or plural is a continuing source of perplexity. The British seem to resolve their doubts in favor of the plural; the Americans seem to resolve theirs in favor of the singular. Both should resolve them in favor of logic."

As Bernstein suggests, context is important. If the sense is of one unit, viewed as a single entity, then the noun should generally be treated as singular. But if the idea is of a number of separate people or entities acting individually, the plural is often best.

Our stylebook has a specific entry on "couple," since the question of singular or plural often arises:

COUPLE may be either singular or plural. Used in reference to two distinct but associated people, couple should be construed as a plural: The couple were married in 1952. The couple argued constantly; they [not it] even threw punches. When the idea is one entity rather than two people, couple may be treated as a singular: Each couple was asked to give $10; The couple was the richest on the block. In general, couple causes fewer problems when treated as a plural.
On the specific example offered by Mr. Swan — "A team of travel editors ... uncover" — I say, well, hmmnn. That's a good one. Is it one team, traveling en masse from island to island in search of fun and bargains? Or do we mean, in effect, "Many editors, working separately, uncover ..." I can argue it either way, but since "team" does inherently have the sense of a unit acting as one, I might be inclined to agree with Mr. Swan and go with the singular. Then again ...


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