Rethinking Number in There’s, Here’s, and Where’s

Abstract

Noun-verb number agreement is widely regarded as a core grammatical constraint in English, but constructions in the form there’s + NP.pl are widely used and accepted by English speakers. Previous studies on singular agreement have focused on the there’s + NP.pl form, finding that such constructions are generally free from the social stigma that are usually linked to agreement errors. We extend the empirical domain by analyzing the prevalence of singular agreement across [X] + be constructions for X ∈ {there, where, here, how} in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) sample texts. We then propose an Optimality-Theoretic explanation for singular agreement, specifically in the form [X]’s + NP.pl, in which phonological complexity constraints can outrank agreement constraints, motivating the observed agreement violations.