‘To Lausanne goes Singapore’s hopes’ (Today headline, 24 October 2007).
Goes is wrong; make it go. In English, the verb agrees with the subject; here, the subject is the plural noun phrase Singapore’s hopes, hence the plural verb go.
Despite coming before the verb, To Lausanne is not the subject but an adverbial of place (i.e. a ‘locative’). In the headline, the subject and the adverbial have been inverted; the normal word-order is Singapore’s hopes go to Lausanne. This phenomenon is technically known as ‘locative inversion’.
Other common examples: Down the hill ran the sheep; Into this crowded market segment comes Fuji’s latest offering; On the wall hangs a masterpiece by Holbein the Younger.
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