Read the following complex sentence carefully and identify which of the four segments contains a grammatical or syntactical error according to standard English usage: (A) Neither the managing director nor his regional associates / (B) was able to attend the emergency board meeting / (C) scheduled for yesterday afternoon / (D) due to inclement weather conditions. Which segment harbors the error?

Detailed Explanation

The error lies in segment (B). According to the grammatical rule of proximity (or subject-verb agreement), when two subject noun phrases are joined by correlative conjunctions such as 'either... or' or 'neither... nor', the verb must agree in person and number with the noun or pronoun closest to it. In this sentence, the closest subject noun phrase is the plural noun 'his regional associates'. Therefore, the singular verb 'was' must be corrected to the plural verb 'were'. For a deeper understanding of syntactic concord rules, refer to Wikipedia Reference on grammatical agreement.

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