Subject-Verb agreement with compound subjects

[Carol]

CJ much earlier:
> > > > "Either he or I ____ going."
> 
> > > Goddlefrood:
> > > I do know that the answer to the above would be to insert 
> 'are'. 
> 
> > Carol responded:
> > Oops. Wrong. 
> 
> Goddlefrood:
> 
> Well, what do you know? Instinct leads to what has been given as 
> the correct answer by such diverse sources as:
> 
> http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic13207.html - Comment by 
> Alan, founder of an ESL school and probably versed in grammar.
> 
> and this:
> 
> http://www.jstor.org/pss/370498 - You'd have to join to read 
> in full.
> 
> I'd rather trust instinct and experts than listen to the 
> disagreements here at OTC.
> 
> Meanwhile, it's not an expression that is likely to be used all 
> that regularly anyway and even if the progenitor of this group 
> used another word in place of are, doesn't mean I have to agree 
> with her, and I don't. Just as I disagree with both Carol and 
> Geoff.
> 
> Now, I may not be a grammarian, but I am something of an expert 
> in the English language and don't appreciate being told I am 
> wrong when I am not. It just depends what you choose to believe 
> and I tend to believe my instincts when it comes to MY language 
> rather than to quasi experts.
>
Carol responds:
My apologies for so bluntly calling you wrong, but the source you
quoted agrees with me:

I said:

>"Are" is used for singular subjects joined by "and" but
not "or." "I are" and "he are" are both incorrect. Singular subjects
joined by "or" remain singular and take a singular verb. If the verb
form differs, as in this case, the verb agrees with the nearest noun.

> However, since the correct construction, "Either he or I am going"
sounds absurd, as does the incorrect "Either he or I is going," the
best solution is to rephrase, as CJ's instincts told him to do:
"Either he's going or I am" or "Either he or I will go."<

Your first source said, enerally speaking:

"(Either) John or Mary is going to meet you at the airport.
--> singular or singular is
.
"Either the Johnsons or the Smiths are going to buy that old house..
--> plural or plural are

"Generally speaking, if you've got singular and plural words connected
by the word or, then usually the verb agrees with the word it's
closest to.
--> singular or plural are
--> plural or singular is?"

Carol again:

That is exactly the same thing that I'm saying. Can you tell me how
"the verb agrees with the word it's closeset to" (his version) differs
from "If the verb form differs, as in this case, the verb agrees with
the nearest noun."

Possibly I was unclear and ought to have said, "if one noun or pronoun
takes a singular verb and the other takes a plural verb, the verb
agrees with the nearest noun," which is exactly what your authority,
whose credentials may or may not include a PhD in English, also says.

As for your second source, which, as you say, I can't access without
being a member, I don't see the relevance. We're discussing what the
rule is (standard English as agreed upon by the various authorities
that I cited) not the question of prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar.

I intended no offense, and I apologize if I sounded flippant with my
"Oops, wrong," Nevertheless, you are mistaken that "Either he or I
*are* going" would ever be considered correct.

Carol, somewhat offended by the tone of your post but striving to keep
her feathers unruffled