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Re: IS or ARE

Subject: Re: IS or ARE
From: Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>
Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 11:55:17 -0700

On 7/26/2012 10:54 AM, Phil03 wrote:

As for this:
He is correct, but he described a subjective construct
In the sense that I understand you here (but I admit I may not understand you correctly), ALL meaning is 'subjective'. A more accurate way to express that is to say all TEXT must be interpreted by the reader.

You said it "depends on whether the free service is one period or not." So, it is subjective because, as you say, the reader must interpret the meaning. I think the sentence as it was presented is vulnerable to grammatical awkwardness because of the passive voice and future tense.

With regards to:

For example, employment policies contain references like, "6 months employment," for probation, since the unit of time is six months long rather than six units of time that are each one month long.
If someone were to ask you to explain the meaning of 'six months employment' would it not be as good an explanation as any to say 'it means employment for (a period of) six months.'? I'm not sure what would be a better explanation of meaning here.

"A period of" is clearly one unit of time, while "two months of" is either two units of time or only one given the context of the sentence. "6 months employment" is in legal cases and various policies and the number of months is rarely spelled out.

Examples:
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs077/1102828640660/archive/1109636145592.html
http://oa.mo.gov/pers/appforms/applpkg.pdf (this includes a hyphen for "6-months")
http://www.workplaceinfo.com.au/resources/employment-topics-a-z/minimum-period-of-employment
http://www.cnic.navy.mil/navycni/groups/public/@hawaii/@region/@manpower/documents/document/cnicd_a072525.pdf

And if it is a good explanation, then, as I said right from the beginning, the singular is correct in: 'Six months of employment IS the period of service'.

While it is correct that the time frame is one period, the inclusion of the preposition "of" suggests that the phrase refers to the number of months and not the time frame as one unit of time.

Apologies if I've missed the point.

I do not know if you understood that I was discussing how the use of the prepositional phrase changes the sentence. "6 months employment" is one period, while "6 months of employment" is six periods one-month long.




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References:
IS or ARE: From: John Posada
Re: IS or ARE: From: Lauren
RE: IS or ARE: From: Joyce . Fetterman
Re: IS or ARE: From: Lauren
Re: IS or ARE: From: Chris Morton
Re: IS or ARE: From: Lauren
Re: IS or ARE: From: Phil03

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