Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: Notesfiles; site uok.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uok!dwhitney
From: dwhitney@uok.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Grammer Quiz (Try it if you dare!) - (nf)
Message-ID: <22100006@uok.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Jul-84 00:56:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uok.22100006
Posted: Wed Jul  4 00:56:00 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 27-Jun-84 09:13:06 EDT
References: <428@bunker.UUCP>
Lines: 33
Nf-ID: #R:bunker:-42800:uok:22100006:000:1213
Nf-From: uok!dwhitney    Jun 20 23:56:00 1984

#R:bunker:-42800:uok:22100006:000:1213
uok!dwhitney    Jun 20 23:56:00 1984


The two sentences, I believe, need to be treated separately.  They is an
unidentified antecedent in the context of that sentence.  (There may be
a more accurate grammatical term for it, but I am not aware of it...)
Team is, indeed, a collective noun, so perhaps the best solution would
be to allow they to be considered a plural pronoun and combine the two
sentences into one, like:

The team lost its first game tonight, and afterwards they went to celebrate.

(spelling errors forgiven and corrected.)

Actually, as I look at it, it almost seems that its is out of place, that
their would be more appropriate, thereby making they seem less awkward in
terms of number.

The team lost their first game tonight, and afterwards they went to celebrate.

This way, you might even be able to put it back into two sentences.

Try diagramming that above sentence....might put the tense and number in 
better perspective (how many have done any serious diagramming since high
school....)

Purely, there is (in my unofficial opinion) a change of number in the two
original sentences.  The two sentences seem more fluent in the latter form..
Oh, well.  (I'm not an English major)

David Whitney
!ctvax!uokvax!uok!dwhitney