[Mortavia]

Originally Posted by CHz

"all" is referring to a totality, but since that totality is a group, we should treat "all" as a group and use a plural verb.

This is the part of your explanation that I don't agree with and I think it's the critical part. You're transferring a plural to something that is actually singular. All is referring to a singular totality. If it referred to multiple totalities, which is very possible, then we would need a plural verb. For example:

- People are marching.
People is the quantifier for the linking verb, so the linking verb is plural.

- The group of people is marching.
The single totality of people, the one group, is the quantifier for the linking verb, so the linking verb is singular. You wouldn't say "the group of people are marching" even though the totality is a group, like you described in your example.

- The groups of people are marching.
The multiple totalities of people, the groups, is the quantifier for the linking verb, so the linking verb is plural.

Here's where it gets important to differentiate the use of the word all.
- All the people are marching.
Yes, even though we have a single totality of people, what we're describing with all is, in fact, not a totality - it is each individual person.

Let's replace "stars" with "people".
- All I saw was people.
Now we are not talking about the totality of people as each individual person. We are talking about it as one single whole - a whole unit that I saw. The whole unit of people was the unit that I saw. Not the whole unit of people were the unit that I saw.

In the sentence "all I saw was stars", you have one totality, one unit. It contains a plural - the stars - but it does not describe each individual star, so it is singular and therefore it was the totality that you saw, not were the totality that you saw.

Maybe we're just not going to see eye-to-eye on it, but I appreciate the discussion. Doing a little research, I found this page, which contains the following quote:

When the indefinite pronoun all is linked to a plural predicate with a linking verb, the verb is nonetheless singular. Burchfield gives the example of "All I saw was fields."

Authority: The New Fowler's Modern English Usage edited by R.W. Burchfield. Clarendon Press: Oxford, England. 1996. Used with the permission of Oxford University Press.

So apparently, The New Fowler's Modern English Usage corroborates my reasoning. However, the citation is from the 1996 edition and a new edition was released in 2004. Also, it's just one book out of... how many books on the English language? I think it would be interesting to see how many other sources cover this specific topic, but for now, I suppose it's best just to lay it to rest, since it doesn't seem to be anything we can come to a consensus on. Thanks again though, to you and Hellacia, real interesting discussion here.