Lidé s deštníky/deštníkem: K jednomu typu číselné shody
Men with umbrellas / an umbrella: On one type of number agreement

Summary/Abstract: In Czech, the attributive noun within the noun phrase containing the so-called commitative attribute (s/with + noun) can in principle be in the plural (s deštníky / with umbrellas) as well as in the singular (s deštníkem / with an umbrella). Based on the analysis of the corpus findings, this article argues that in principle there are no strict rules determining the use of either morphological number. In general, the plural is preferred, but in some cases the singular predominates. Although there are no strict rules, some influence seems to be observed. This is mainly a matter of the lexical composition of this type of attributive noun phrase – some ready-made patterns with plural agreement can be observed. Probably, plural agreement also predominates in noun phrases that evoke a notion of a group of objects belonging to a group or a collection of people, such as the batons belonging to policemen (policisté s obušky / policemen with truncheons).

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