THEME 13:

THE EXPRESSION OF QUANTITY.

1. INTRODUCTION

2. PLURAL IN NOUNS

a). The Regular Plural

b). Irregular Plurals
c). Plural in Compounds

3. USE OF SINGULAR AND PLURAL IN NOUNS

a). Singular Invariable Nouns

b). Plural Invariable Nouns
c). Nouns with Equivocal Number

4. COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

a). From a Morphological and Syntactic Point of View

b). From a Semantic Point of View

5. PREMODIFIERS

a). Predeterminers
b). Numerals
c). Quantifiers
1. INTRODUCTION

The English number system constitutes a two-term contrast: singular, which

denotes ‘one’, and plural, which denotes ‘more than one’. Each noun phrase is either
singular or plural, and its number is determined in general by its head, which is
typically a noun.

Here, we will concentrate on number as a property of nouns, although we may

distinguish dual number in other words, as is the case of predeterminers, like
both, or quantifiers, like many or several.

2. PLURAL IN NOUNS

a). The Regular Plural:

 Pronunciation:

The regular -s plural has three different pronunciations, depending on the final
sound of the base:

// after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: bets months

// after voiced consonants other than sibilants and vowels: beds boys
// after sibilants: boxes churches

 Spelling:

The plural is written -s after most nouns, including nouns ending in silent -e
(college - colleges). There are, however, several exceptions to this rule:

i). Unless the noun is written with a silent -e, the plural is spelled -es after
nouns ending in sibilants which are spelled:

-s: gas gases

-z: buzz buzzes
-x: box boxes
-ch church churches
-sh: bush bushes

ii). Nouns ending in -o have plurals in -os or -oes:

- When -o is preceded by a vowel sound, the spelling is -os: bamboos, radios.

- When -o is preceded by a consonant, the spelling is usually -os: pianos, photos.
- Some nouns have plurals only in -oes. For example, echoes, potatoes, tomatoes.

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- In some cases there is vacillation between -os and -oes. For example, buffalo(e)s,
manifesto(e)s.

iii). Nouns ending in -y preceded by a consonant change the -y to -i and add -es.
For example, sky skies, fly flies.

iv). The final consonant is doubled in a few words. For example, fez - fezzes,
quiz - quizzes.

b). Irregular Plurals:

Irregular plurals are by definition unpredictable and have to be learned as

individual lexical units.

 Voicing:

Some nouns which, in the singular, end in the voiceless fricatives // or // form
plurals with the corresponding voiced fricatives // or // followed by /z/. Some
examples are:
path // paths //
knife // knives //

Words with a consonant letter before the -th form the plural regularly:
birth // births //

In a few cases, there are both regular and voiced plurals. For example:
truths // or //

Both regular and voiced plurals are found with other words. For example:
dwarf dwarfs // or dwarves //

 Mutation:

The plural is formed by mutation, that is a change of vowel, in a few nouns.

Examples are:
tooth teeth man men mouse mice

 The -en Plural:

This relic from Old English only occurs in three nouns.

brother brethren child children ox oxen

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  Foreign Plurals:

Many foreign words, especially of Latin and Greek origin, keep their original
plurals, though there is a tendency for more familiar words to form regular
plurals. In some cases there are two plurals: a regular form and the original one,
used mainly in technical discourse.

i). Nouns from Latin ending in -us:

The foreign plural in most cases is -i, as in stimulus - stimuli. There are highly
irregular plurals, like corpus - corpora. Some nouns only have the regular plural, as
in chorus - choruses, while others have both plurals, as in cactus - cactuses/cacti
or nucleus - nucleuses/nuclei.

ii). Nouns from Latin ending in -a:

The foreign plural is -ae, as in alumna - alumnae. Some nouns only have the regular
plural, as in area - areas, while others have both plurals, as in antenna -
antennas/antennae or formula - formulas/formulae.

iii). Nouns from Latin ending in -um:

The foreign plural is -a, as in curriculum - curricula. Some nouns only have the
regular plural, as in album - albums, while others have both plurals, as in medium -
mediums/media or referendum - referendums/referenda.

iv). Nouns from Latin ending in -ex, -ix:

The foreign plural is -ices, as in index - indices. Some nouns have both plurals, as in
apex - apexes/apices or matrix - matrixes/matrices.

v). Nouns from Greek ending in -is:

The foreign plural is -es, as in basis - bases, while only the regular plural is used in
metropolis - metropolises.

vi). Nouns from Greek ending in -on:

The foreign plural is -a, as in phenomenon - phenomena. Some nouns only have the
regular plural, as in electron - electrons, while both plurals are used in automaton -
automatons/automata.

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vii). Nouns from French:

A few nouns ending in -eau and eu may retain the French -x as the spelling of the
plural, as in bureau - bureaux or adieu - adieux, besides the commoner -s, as in
bureaus or adieus. The plurals are almost always pronounced with a voiced //,
regardless of spelling.

Some French nouns ending in -s or -x are pronounced without the final sibilant in
the singular, and with a regular voiced // in the plural. An example is corps // -
corps //.

viii). Nouns from Italian ending in -o:

The foreign plural is -i, as in tempo - tempi. Some nouns only have the regular
plural, as in solo - solos, while others have both plurals, as in virtuoso -
virtuosos/virtuosi or libretto - librettos/libretti.

ix). Nouns from Hebrew:

The foreign plural is -im, as in kibbutz - kibbutzim, but usually the regular plural is
used, as in cherub - cherubs.

c). Plural in Compounds:

Compound nouns form the plural in different ways. It is most common, however, to
consider the compound as a single noun and pluralise the last element, even when
this is not a noun, as in sit-ins.

 Plural in the Last Element:

babysitter babysitters gin-and-tonic gin-and-tonics
breakdown breakdowns stand-by stand-bys

 Plural in the First Element:

This occurs especially when the compound includes a postmodifier or final particle:
man-of-war men-of-war passer-by passers-by
mother-in-law mothers-in-law notary-public notaries-public

 Appositional Compounds:

These compounds, whose first element is or includes man or woman, pluralise both
elements:
woman doctor women doctors gentleman lawyer gentlemen lawyers

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However, when the compound is not appositional, only the last element is
pluralised:
woman-hater woman-haters man-eater man-eaters

3. USE OF SINGULAR AND PLURAL IN NOUNS

Some nouns only have one number form: many concrete non-count nouns, like gold
or silver, or abstract non-count nouns, like courage or music, have no plural suffix.
Other nouns, which were originally plurals, like darts or measles, are now used as
singulars.

a). Singular Invariable Nouns:

Non-count nouns are singular and invariable and therefore have no plural. However,
some of them can be reclassified as count nouns with specific meanings (for
example, butter, meaning kinds of butter, or a beer, meaning a glass of beer).

Abstract non-count nouns normally have no plural, but they can be reclassified as
count nouns when they refer to an instance of a given abstract phenomenon:
injustices, regrets, pleasures.

Invariable nouns ending in -s take a singular verb, except where mentioned:

 News is always singular: Here is the news.


Nouns ending in -ics denoting subjects or sciences are usually treated as
singular:
Mathematics is the science of quantities.

When these words denote a practical application they can be plural:

His politics are rather conservative.

 Names of diseases ending in -s are usually treated as singular:

measles mumps shingles

 The names of some games ending in -s have singular concord:

billiards darts dominoes

b). Plural Invariable Nouns:

I. Summation Plurals:

These denote words of two equal parts which are joined together:

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  Tools and Instruments: glasses scales scissors

 Articles of Dress: jeans pyjamas trousers

Number contrast can be achieved by means of a pair of. Thus, a pair of trousers
refers to one item and two pairs of trousers refers to two.

Many of these forms are singular when used attributively:

a trouser leg a spectacle case

II. Pluralia Tantum Ending in -s:

Some nouns, in a given sense, occur only in the plural, whereas others have no
plural marking. Some examples are:
clothes arms savings contents

In many cases, these nouns also have singular forms with different meanings:
These damages have not been paid. (compensation)
That damage has been repaired. (harm, loss)

III. Unmarked Plurals:

Many nouns have no plural marking but are used as plurals:

people police cattle

IV. Zero Plural:

Some nouns have the same form in both singular and plural.

 Animal names: deer fish cod

In some cases, there is also a regular plural, mainly to denote different species:
The fishes of the Mediterranean.

 Nationality Nouns: Chinese Swiss Apache(s)

 Quantitative Numbers: dozen hundred million

The plural form is normally used when an of phrase follows:

dozens of glasses thousands of spectators

c). Nouns with Equivocal Number:

Many nouns can be treated as singular or plural. Some examples are:

series means data

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4. COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Countable nouns are nouns denoting concepts that can be counted. These words
correspond to definite things which have a certain shape or precise limits. Such
concepts refer to both material and immaterial things, as for example in table or
week.

Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) refer to substances or qualities that cannot be
counted. They may be material or immaterial things, as for example in wine or
freedom.

Some nouns combine the characteristics of both countable and uncountable nouns.
For example:
Her hair is brown. (uncountable)
I found a hair in my soup. (countable)

We can examine countable and uncountable nouns from two points of view:

a). From a Morphological and Syntactic Point of View:

Countable nouns are always preceded by some determiner. For example:

Singular Countable Plural Countable

a some
each both
one cardinal numbers
this these

Uncountable nouns can only be used with the determiners much or little.

b). From a Semantic Point of View:

In many cases there is a separate count noun and non-count noun referring to the
same area of meaning. For example:

Countable Uncountable
a loaf bread
a meal food
a pig pork
a leaf foliage

As uncountables denote what cannot be counted, the ideas of singular and plural
are not applicable to them. The use of partitives is a way to express quantity or
separated items of normally uncountable concepts.

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Quantity is expressed with expressions such as:
a great deal of a great amount of

Separated items are expressed by using partitives.

I. General Partitives:

a bit a piece an item

II. Typical Partitives:

a bar of chocolate a sheet of paper

a slice of cake a rasher of bacon

III. Words that Indicate Measure:

a pound of butter a pint of beer

a foot of water a yard of cloth

5. PREMODIFIERS

Premodifiers are closed-system items that occur before the head of the noun
phrase and modify the noun. They can be divided into three classes:
predeterminers, numerals and quantifiers.

a). Predeterminers:

They can occur before certain central determiners, such as articles or

demonstratives, and include:

 all, both and half:

all (the) girls both those cars half an hour

 the multipliers double, twice, three times etc.:

double the sum three times my salary

 the fractions one-third, one-fifth etc.:

one-third of the population

 such, what:
such a surprise! what a fine day!

Predeterminers are mutually exclusive:

*all both girls

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b). Numerals:

one is obviously used with singular nouns, while the rest of the cardinal numbers
require a plural noun. In this group we can also include some postdeterminers like
next, last or (an)other, which are grammatically and semantically similar to them.
They may be used before or after cardinal numbers (although they usually
precede them): the first two days.

c). Quantifiers:

There are two small groups of closed-class quantifiers which function as post-
determiners:

 many, (a) few and several occur only with plural count nouns:
There were too many mistakes in your essay.
There were several people injured in the riot.

 much and (a) little occur only with non-count nouns:

She hasn’t got much money.
We’ve only eaten a little bread.

There is another group in which we may include all those quantifiers that can be
used with countable or uncountable nouns:

some and any are used with plural nouns when they mean ‘a certain amount

or number’:
Have some biscuits.
Have you got any children?

However, some is used with singular nouns when it means ‘unspecified or unknown’:
Some idiot parked his car outside my garage.

any can be used with singular nouns when the meaning is ‘practically every’:
Any dictionary will give you the correct meaning .

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