These are the parents of the new generation, which, by simple inheritance, possesses

[Flogger]

Hello,

My understanding of the following sentence tells me that the verb "possess" refers to the pronoun "these". Thus, the verb should be in its plural form, possess, to be in accordance with the plural pronoun, however, the vice versa is shown is the below sentence. Why?

These are the parents of the new generation, which, by simple inheritance, possesses all the qualities of “toughness” inherent in its forebears.

+ Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

 

[SoothingDave]

These are
generation possesses

 

[Flogger]

These are
generation possesses

Well, the noun before "of" is considered to be in accordance with the verb!

The parents of Dave are good and educated.

In the original post, "these" is preceded before "of" but the verb is singular not plural.

 

[SoothingDave]

These are. Noun. Verb.

These are what?

These are the parents.

Which parents?

The parents of the new generation.

Tell us something about this new generation.

This new generation possesses the qualities of toughness.

 

[jutfrank]

I'll say in a different way what SoothingDave has already said: the verb possesses goes with the singular noun generation (not parents).

 

[emsr2d2]

Also, if "possess" belonged to "parents", it would be preceded by "who", not "which".