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From: ark@alice.UucP (Andrew Koenig)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: "United States"
Message-ID: <4800@alice.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 12-Jan-86 11:38:45 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.4800
Posted: Sun Jan 12 11:38:45 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 13-Jan-86 01:06:46 EST
References: <383@cisden.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 11

> Does anyone have an eighteenth- or nineteenth-century quotation using
> the phrase "the United States" as a singular noun?  It always used to
> be plural, but now it's nearly always singular.  When did it change?
> -- 
>				Peace and Good!,
>				      Fr. John Woolley
> "The heart has its reasons that the mind does not know." -- Blaise Pascal

I have seen several instances that lead me to believe that the normal
usage in England is to use plural forms to agree with, say, names of
corporations.  "IBM are introducing a new product."