rich said:
Don't see where any slang enters into this. Gang: American/was. Gang:UK/were. That's what I thought. I don't mind being wrong, but I'd prefer seeing a straight answer why.
My aplogies, I didn't mean to be indirect: I assumed that you were referring to slang. Obviously I made a mistake. I've just never heard anyone in the UK say "The army were large" or "The gang were late" unless they had very strong Northern accents and were chatting informally.
There is no difference, in my experience, between the UK English use of the word "gang" and the American English use of it, outside of slang / regional dialects. I've also always assumed that in both cases, the grammar is consistent. If there's anyone out there that knows, I'd love to hear more though.
I looked it up on the OED; here is a highlight of the relevant listings for "gang, noun 1" (definition n1. 11)
II. A set of things or persons.
8. a. A set of articles such as are usually taken together.
So Ger. gang; applied, e.g. to a set of cart-wheels, of horseshoes, etc.
9. a. A company of workmen.
This and the following senses appear to be peculiar to Eng.; the ON. drauga-gangr, etc., have often been compared, but -gang-r in these compounds means not ‘gang’, but the act of going about. It would appear that in nautical use the word meaning ‘set of things’ (sense 8) was extended to the sense ‘set of persons’, ‘crew’, which had earlier been expressed by the cognate and like-sounding GING.
10. a. Any band or company of persons who go about together or act in concert (chiefly in a bad or depreciatory sense, or associated with criminal societies).
transf. a social set.
colloq.
Etc....
I could be wrong, but to me "a set" implies a singular group, i.e. "The set was incorrect." (rather than "The set were incorrect").
Again, sorry if I jumped to the wrong conclusion about what you were saying: I'd be interested in your thoughts on these definitions. I can send you a personalised link to the whole OED listing (is subscription only, so I don't want to paste it all here for obvious reasons). PM me with an email if you want.
Cheers, and sorry once more
M
And because I am a word nerd: See the following (another of the OED definitions):
c. Gang of Four [tr. Chinese
sìrénb
ng, f.
sì four +
rén human being, person +
b
ng gang, clique], a nickname for four leading members of the Cultural Revolutionary Left accused after the death of Mao Tse-tung of counter-revolutionary conspiracy and Marxist revisionism, and discredited in October 1976 by the Communist Party Central Committee of the People's Republic of China.
1976 Peking Rev. 29 Oct. 7/2 The Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua Kuo-feng smashed the scheme of the ‘gang of four’ to usurp Party and state power.
1977 ‘S. L
EYS’ Chinese Shadows (1978) ii. 88 The downfall of the ‘Gang of Four’..in late 1976 marked the end of Shanghai as a citadel of radical Maoism. 1978 Times 29 Sept. (China Suppl.) p. iii/1 The country's agricultural performance since the fall of the Gang of Four has been disappointing.
1978 Chinese Lit. XII. 117 This so-called evidence was fabricated by Chu Lan, a group of ‘gang of four’ writers. 1983 Atlantic Monthly July 28/2 The postmortem on China's intermittent troubles..has moved its target from Mao's widow and her three Shanghai associates (Gang of Four) to the role of Mao in the Gang's ultra-leftism.