Why is neither singular, but none plural?

Question

neither | Origin and meaning of neither by Online Etymology Dictionary

"not one or the other," Middle English neither, naither, nether, from Old English nawþer, contraction of nahwæþer, literally "not of two," from na "no" (from PIE root *ne- "not") + hwæþer "which of two" (see whether).

none | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

Middle English non, none, from Old English nan "not one, not any, no person; not the least part," from ne "not" (see no) + an "one" (see one). Cognate with Old Saxon, Middle Low German nen, Old Norse neinn, Middle Dutch, Dutch neen, Old High German, German nein "no," and analogous to Latin non- (see non-). It is thus the negative of one, an, and a (1).

Why is neither singular, but none is plural? I know language can be illogical, but any logic here?

Answer 1

Contrary to what you're suggesting, I think there's definitely some logic to the traditional rule set forth in the posts you yourself have provided links to.

The traditional rule is:

Both neither and none should be treated as singular in formal context. In informal context, they can (not should) be treated as plural.

That said, here's what The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Page 507) has to say:

Any and none naturally take singular verbs when they are construed as non-count singular – for example, when they have a singular NP as oblique partitive, as in Has any of the money been recovered? or None of the food was contaminated. When they quantify over a plural set, they take either plural or singular verbs:

[23] i Please let me know immediately if [any of the set texts] are/is unavailable.

ii He made quite a few mistakes but [none (of them)] were/was very serious.

Either and neither quantify over sets of two and as pure determiners take only singular heads. In the fused determiner-head construction the default verb-form is singular; plurals are also found, but they are likely to be avoided in formal style:

[24] i Has/Have [either of the candidates] arrived yet?

ii He made two mistakes but [neither (of them)] was/were very serious.

Answer 2

Conventions set by earlier grammarians set the logic here, to the extent there is much logic.

As John Lawler points out in a comment to this question, the grammatical number of a negative is arbitrarily set. As pronouns, neither and none are neither singular nor plural. Neither of two or none of many is zero, not many (plural) and not one (singular). These pronouns are used with either singular or plural verbs because those are the two simple options available in English for number.

Which one to use is arbitrary on the whole. Yes, you can probably find situations where a singular verb or plural verb sound right to a fluent ear, and you can try to reason from context (Grammar Girl provides an example of thinking through whether the pronoun none refers to a singular or plural antecedent), but in my experience, only convention dictates an absolute difference. Thus, without a clear logic, language users are instead guided by their own conventions or whims. The Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, has many examples of both singular and plural usages with neither.

B. pron.

1. Not the one nor the other (of two). a. Standing alone or with of.

[...]

(a) With singular or unmarked agreement.

[examples from 1300 onward omitted for brevity]

• 1923 World's Work May 563/2 He..expected that he had been arrested in mistake for me. Unfortunately neither of us was justified in our hopes of misprision.
• 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard iii. 111 Both the detectives' names and ranks were correct; neither was upped to DCS.
• 2001 N. Jones Rough Guide Trav. Health ii. 399 There are several suitable drugs to eradicate the worms, such as tiabendazole..and albendazole.., neither of which should be taken in pregnancy.

(b) With plural verb or anaphoric plural pronoun.

Use of plural agreement with neither is frequently criticized by grammarians in the latter part of the 18th cent.

[examples from 1550 onward omitted for brevity]

• 1886 R. C. Moberly Probl. & Princ. (1904) x. 314 They are co-ordinate,..they neither override the other.
• 1902 Philos. Rev. 11 140 At this stage of development it is nonsense to talk about the self or the non-self, egoism or altruism, the individual or the external world, for neither exist as far as the child is concerned.
• 1991 Daily Tel. 5 Jan. 30/7 In the girls' singles, neither of the top two seeds were seriously challenged.

The note in B.1.a.(b) is interesting - it was the 18th century grammarians that insisted on treating neither as singular. In many cases, it was convention - and not logic - that would dictate the choice of neither is over neither are.

Incidentally, none also has a history of flexible usage, with singular (A.2.a) and plural (A.2.b) examples. While A.2.b notes that the plural usage is now more common, "the singular being expressed by no one," it is not too hard to find errant "none is" or "none ... [singular verb]" in the wild.

So, at least in this case, convention sets the motivation for using none and neither, and especially whether you want to be judged negatively by someone who holds dear to convention.

Answer 3

According to Strunk & White's The Elements of Style:

With none, use the singular verb when the word means "no one" or "not one."

None of us is perfect.

A plural verb is commonly used when none suggests more than one thing or person.

None are so fallible as those who are sure they're right.

Any reason beyond the simple rationale given here is, IMHO, superfluous. As for the singular use of neither, Strunk & White group this word with its counterpart either and others:

Use a singular verb form after each, either, everyone, everybody, neither, nobody, someone.

Although both clocks strike cheerfully, neither keeps good time.

The logic here is easy to see if you consider that both either and neither conceptually separate two items rather than group them together, much like words such as everybody [i.e., each individual body] and nobody [i.e., not one body] do.

Answer 4

Neither and none both are plural and singular when we are using it in the sentence. Please check below examples.

You use neither before a singular noun, with a singular verb: Neither answer is right. • You use neither of before a plural noun or pronoun. In formal speech and in writing, you use a singular verb: Neither of the answers is right.

None can be a singular pronoun if it's referring to not one or no part, but it also can be plural when referring to not any.