[Grammar] "A majority of the band's material.."

[tom3m]

A majority of the band's material came either from Page alone, or co-writing with Robertson.

I would like to know, why there is an indefinite article before the word majority. In my opinion, we are speaking about about a very definite majority, i.e. of the band's material. Any general rule or recommendation about this use of indefinite articles.

Thank you

 

[Raymott]

"A majority" is fine, though you could use "the majority" as well.
If you got all the works together that were written by Page, either alone or with Robertson, they would constitute a majority of the works.
That's not the only majority of those works you could have though. Another majority of the band's works could have been released by Sony.
In that case, the majority would be by Page and Robertson, and the majority released by Sony, but they would not necessarily be the same works in both cases.

 

[Tdol]

I would go for the majority there- if we're talking about songwriting, it is unlikely that there is another majority. I agree that a majority can work- when talking about votes in parliament, you'll hear that something was passed with a majority of 50 because there are many such votes and, consequently, many majorities.

 

[lotus888]

I think they're talking about the band Led Zeppelin. If so, the sentence should read:

The majority of the band's material came from either Jimmy Page alone, or was co-written with Robert Plant.



--lotus

 

[tom3m]

I think they're talking about the band Led Zeppelin. If so, the sentence should read:

The majority of the band's material came from either Jimmy Page alone, or was co-written with Robert Plant.

--lotus

No, they're talking about Barenaked Ladies - a band from Canada .

 

[Barb_D]

Note the change to "was co-written." The original was not grammatical with the "or co-writing."

 

[lotus888]

No, they're talking about Barenaked Ladies - a band from Canada .

Oh, they're the ones who did the title song in "Big Bang Theory!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPw5Q3LCZtU

It's one of my favorite shows -- intelligent and funny. Sometimes it's a little juvenile. But mostly it's funny with clever dialogue.
By the way, much of the science is correct. Sheldon cracks me up to no end.



--lotus

 

[Barb_D]

They have a PhD physicist who is their physics advisor to the science should be right. Mostly he gets to create new stuff for Sheldon's white board, but in an interview he says he gets scrips that say "insert science stuff here."

The woman who plays Amy is the neuroscience advisor.

 

[lotus888]

No wonder! They even had Stephen Hawking on the show once. What I would give to meet him just once!

There was a time when he could still mutter words. At about the middle of this documentary, you can see him talk at a lecture (with an interpreter). You can see the brilliance in his eyes even then.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204224/

Here is a snippet from a segment in the show. Hawking begins at 1:03.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkqDO4ViyJI&index=3&list=PL2855C5F7D40492CD


--lotus