Like you, Sphinx, my feeling at first blush was that this sentence from Ms. Monsod’s column has two subject-verb disagreement errors in quick succession: “Justice Antonio Carpio and Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno
each have a dissenting opinion, Justice Arturo Brion and Justice Presbitero Velasco
each have a separate opinion....” My thinking was that since the pronoun “each” in both instances is singular, the operative verb should be the singular “has” rather than the plural “have,” so that sentence should be corrected as follows: “Justice Antonio Carpio and Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno
each has a dissenting opinion, Justice Arturo Brion and Justice Presbitero Velasco
each has a separate opinion....”
However, it turns out that the usage of “each” in such constructions is more contentious and controversial than I thought, and that “each” in such constructions can also be viewed as an "adjective following a plural noun subject." In any case, way back in 1969, the Usage Panel of the
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) rejected the usage of the plural “each” in “they
each have large followings” by a whopping 95 percent—meaning, of course, that only 5 percent thought that the usage of “each have” in that construction is correct. (Click this link to
“Wordsmiths: They Also Serve Who Only Vote on ‘Ain’t’,” a
New York Times feature article on the workings of the AHD Usage Panel.) But it appears that the AHD had since upheld the correctness of “each have” in such constructions, as indicated
in this usage note in 2010 for its 4th edition :
Usage Note: The traditional rule holds that the subject of a sentence beginning with each is grammatically singular, and the verb and following pronouns must be singular accordingly: Each of the apartments has (not have) its (not their) own private entrance (not entrances). When each follows a plural subject, however, the verb and subsequent pronouns remain in the plural: The apartments each have their own private entrances (not has its own private entrance). But when each follows the verb with we as its subject, the rule has an exception. One may say either We boys have each our own room or We boys have each his own room, though the latter form may strike readers as stilted. • The expression each and every is likewise followed by a singular verb and, at least in formal style, by a singular pronoun: Each and every driver knows (not know) what his or her (not their) job is to be.
On the other hand, the online
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage (MWD) has been firmly in favor of the plural “each have” all along, even commenting that the members of the AHD Usage Panel “were marching alone, apparently,” in their 95:5 rejection of the plural “each have.” The MWD cites several English-language authorities and the 1982 edition of the AHD itself as approving the plural pronoun in such instances, then offers the following examples of that construction, among others:
“Our containerboard mills each conduct five-year programs.”—
Annual Report, Owens Illinois, 1970“If we and our Atlantic community partners each take our respective share.”—
Dean Acheson, U.S. State Dept. Bulletin, 12 June 1950(
Click this link to the full discussion by the MWD of the “each have” usage)
So where do these differing opinions on the plural “each have” lead us?
I think that as in the case of the Philippine Supreme Court, we should decide on this collegially and follow the rule of the majority of the English-language authorities. This means, of course, that Ms. Monsod’s use of “each have” in her column –and the
Inquirer’s acceptance of it—is grammatically correct and beyond contestation.
If anyone remains uncomfortable with the plural “each have,” however, I suggest this alternative: knock off “each” in both instances from the sentence so it can use the plural “have,” as follows: “Justice Antonio Carpio and Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno
have separate dissenting opinions, Justice Arturo Brion and Justice Presbitero Velasco
have separate opinions....”
That should settle the matter for good.
