singular vs. plural, passive voice, using possessives with gerunds

It appears Sarah Palin’s aides were so busy prepping her on foreign affairs and national security that they didn’t have time to review grammar.

The governor made many singular-plural mistakes, particularly when describing states and nations, which are singular. For example, in the Thursday interview, Palin told Charlie Gibson, “I don’t think that we should second guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves and for their security.”

In the Friday interview, she said, “Every state has their embarrassment.”

And that’s Alaska’s: counting. Alaskans have their embarrassment. But Alaska, being one country, has its embarrassment.

Palin also got in trouble when Gibson asked about the Bush doctrine and she attempted to talk about an unfamiliar term and an unpopular president. Her telling technique: the rare (and regretful) use of passive voice. “There have been blunders along the way, though,” Palin said of the president’s military strategy. “There have been mistakes made.”

You may recall that the active voice earned accolades and gold stars in junior high. A sentence written in an active voice begins with a subject and follows with a verb. “Sr. Mary Angelica (subject) dissected (verb) the sentence (direct object).” On the other hand, a passive voice – can’t you see Sister scowling? – buries the subject. “The sentence (direct object) was dissected (verb) by Sr. Mary Angelica (subject).”

The passive voice Palin assumed mimics the sentence structure President Bush has used in describing the U.S. military policy. “Mistakes have been made,” he told a televised audience nearly four years into the Iraq war.

The passive voice reflects a lack of responsibility. The subject would rather look like an object than position himself in his true role, as the instigator or agent of action.

Palin made a few glaring grammatical mistakes in the ABC interview. For example, she said, “Taxes, of course, I think is one of the most important things that government can obviously control and to help with this issue.” Taxes are plural, though: There are multiple taxes filed multiple times a year. So Palin she should’ve said, “Taxes are one of the most important things…” Or, if she wanted to keep the subject singular, she could’ve said, “Managing taxes is one of the most important things…”

That brings us to gerunds, verbs that end in “ing” and can function as nouns. The pressure of Gibson’s sharp questions about Troopergate seems to have affected Palin, triggering one of the ugliest statements from last night’s interview.

“Why I replaced Commissioner Monegan was after two years of he working in my cabinet as a political appointment, at will, exempt, recognizing after two years, he wasn’t meeting the goals I wanted met in that area of public service…,” Palin said.

Here’s the deal. Typically, when a noun (Commission Monegan) or pronoun (he) precedes a gerund (working), that noun or pronoun takes a possessive form. The person owns the action, in a way. I can’t stand his singing. He is proud of his son’s making the varsity soccer team. Palin should’ve said “after two years of his working in my cabinet…”

Then again, after only three weeks of her being McCain’s running mate, Palin hasn’t had much time for grammar. We hope she joins the guard before debating Joe Biden. (And we’ll be listening closely when she does.)

FUN FACT

Number of times Palin said “we have got to” in the Thursday interview: 10

Preferable alternatives: we must, we need to, we have to