Plural

The number is in grammar and linguistics , a grammatical feature that characterizes some lemmas such as names and adjectives , the pronouns and the verbs. In the nominal and pronominal system, the number is - more or less accurate - the quantity of units of lemma (unit: cat, several units: cats). In the verbal system, it is often the representation of the number of a name or a pronoun associated with the verb (usually playing the role of subject). It says in this case that the verb is given in number with that other word, which is not necessarily present in the statement but may be implied (in Latin : amat "(he) loves" ~ lover "they like ": the subject pronoun is not expressed but the word implies, respectively," one subject at ^the 3rd person "~" several subjects at the ³ rd person).

Types of numbers

The number must be distinguished from the use of numerals, which they indicate a precise mathematical quantity: indeed, in most languages, the number does not denote any quantity that wave. If, in most Indo-European modern, the number is limited to a binary opposition wave (singular: one unit, plural: several units), there are other cases involving a breakdown more specific:

• singular, which is exactly one unit of the lemma;
• the singulative, which represents a unit drawn from a set normally consists of several units (in Breton , in Arabic ). The singulative noticeable because it is marked (by a morpheme, for example) instead of the plural;
• the duel , which is exactly two units (that is the case for example in Lithuanian , Slovenian , Sorbian , Greek , Sanskrit , Hebrew , Arabic and French sign language ). This number does not necessarily indicate emotional closeness ("we two");
• the trial development, which is exactly three units (that is the case in some Australian languages and Austronesian as the mwotlap );
• the quatriel (or on quadriel Engl. quadral), which represents exactly four units (this may be the case sursurunga of New Ireland ^{Names massive count nouns, collective nouns}

  It traditionally makes a distinction between count nouns (which can easily be preceded with a numeral, a etc..), Such as: and mass nouns, or mass, or mass, accounting or not, it seems difficult to pluralize for semantic reasons rather than morphological These are for use in the plural because only through a shift in meaning ( metonymy ): wines means kinds of wines, disorders can mean score of disorder (the term not necessarily involving massive it is something concrete) ^, .

  The difference between mass nouns and accounting is not treated the same way in different languages. Thus, where we say instead of potatoes, the Russian said of the potato (), the latter being regarded as something of a subject rather than an accumulation of objects Discrete similar. Similarly, if in Italian (and French), spaghetti (s) is a plural in English spaghetti is a mass noun.

  The names of mass should not be confused with collective nouns, such as ... A collective name means "a meeting of entities, also isolable, designed as a specific entity" . He is himself a count noun (eg two teams, a few packs ...)

  Different kinds of plural

  Some languages have multiple plurals . The Kru example (the language spoken in Liberia and Ivory Coast ) has a singular and two plural:

  • one of the plural indicates any set of two or more objects. Ie any group of men, any assortment of books.
  • the other indicates a plural group of objects linked together somehow. Ex: a group of men from the same tribe, a number of volumes of a collection.

  Other languages mark a distinction between singular and non-singular , the non-singular potential value associations. Examples:

  • in Belhar (language Tibeto-Burman ), ama-chi did not mean "many mothers", but "my mother and relatives (sisters, friends, etc.. as appropriate)
  • in Hungarian , the suffix-ek, separate from the regular plural suffix-ok, has a similar meaning (Jnosk = John and his associates, several Jnosok = "John")

  ^The 1st-person non-singular often indicates an exclusive we (the speaker and his group, contact excluded). The number of associations is generally reserved for proper names, according to relatives, titles and occupations but different languages use words Eurasian Echoes (echo words), with initial mutation to mention one thing and "everything that goes with" raks Saksi-in Nepal = an alcoholic drink + appetizers, etc., in Turkish-ocuk = mocuk children and all that goes with it, toys. These formations extend even to echo in other parts of speech (eg. In Hindi : Naha-Vaha = swim + dry off, get dressed, etc.). In this case, the meaning can be more than the non-specificity of the association.

  Expression of the number

  In inflected languages

  The number, in inflected languages , is indicated by the morphology. According to the lemma is a noun, a pronoun or a verb, the expression of many forms will vary widely (as does language change that pronouns, like other nouns, pronouns and verbs, etc.).. For example, confining the nominal system, the number can be expressed by:

  In the following examples, the morpheme indicating the number is underlined. In some languages, the singular is marked as well as other numbers.

  • affixation
    • Suffix:
      • Turkish ~ adam adam lar (male (s) ")
      • Esperanto homo homo ~ j (male (s) ")
      • Japanese (for pronouns)~ watashi watashi tachi ("I" ~ "we"), ETC.
    • endings :
      • i dominated Latin ( genitive singular) ~ domin orum (genitive plural) "of / the teacher (s)")
      • French cat cat ~ s (French-s is the most common, but there are times-x (~ nice nice x), the plural is usually only graphics: there is no evidence, at the ear to distinguish cat cats. There are a few irregularities: the horse ~ Cav)
      • English cat cat ~ s (the ending-s is the most common, however there are a few anachronisms like ox ~ ox in, child child ~ ren),
      • Castilian mujer mujer es ~ "woman (s)" (-es for words ending in a consonant, but only for those s-ending in a vowel casa casa ~ s);
      • Slovenian jezik "(a) language" has ~ jezik "(two) languages" ~ i jezik "(three or more) languages"
    • prefixes:
      • Kikongo di Nkongo ~ Nkongo my banana (s) (there are many more examples with all Bantu languages , which make use of class prefixes ranging in number);
    • simulfixes :
      • Arabic k i t to b ~ k u t u b "book (s)" (known internally plural , or "broken plural")
      • Fulani awaandu r ~ d awaa i "dog (s)" (dual system in the initial consonant and change of class suffix )
      • Albanian Murg In isolating languages

        In isolating languages , the number is not morphologically indicated: only the context or syntax used to see if we are dealing with a singular or plural (for example). The use of quantifiers also enables the number of oppositions: in Mandarin , in the sentence |w mi Shu, literally "I | Buy | Book (s)" refers to the lemma "book "without giving any numbers. Loosely translated as "I buy a book" or "I buy books."

        In reality, it is more correct to specify the quantity: |w y mi bin Shu word for word "I | buying | a | specification books | book 'or' buy a book, "or|ling bin Shu" two books "or|Shu xie" several books ", etc.. |w mi Shu would make sense actually more like "I buy books" than "buy a book" because the singularity is more need to be marked as plurality.

        The case of personal pronouns

        Personal pronouns still mark the opposition of many in the majority language. In Mandarin , for example, while the concept of number is absent from the morphological system not developed, since language is insulating pronouns do indeed possess this trait grammatical one associates the suffix -| - -Men wpronouns "I,"n "you" and t"it" to get|wmen "we"|nmen "you" and|tamen 'they'.

        In fact, I specifically and distinguish us, and they, for example, is necessary for basic communication.

        Variability of the agreement in number

        In inflected languages, in addition to names, pronouns and verbs, other lexical classes are affected by the number: it is essentially the determinants and adjectives. Generally, they agree in number with the words they update. In addition, the verb may agree in number with its subject, which may also be a noun or pronoun.

        However, according to language, these agreements are more or less important because the number of terms that may vary in number differs from one language to another.

        For example, Castilian is redundant because if one starts with a plural subject as s gato "cat" that are updated by the article and an adjective, is obtained for example lo s s pequeo gato s "kittens." This phrase becomes the subject, the verb follows the desired number: lo pequeo s s s gato year lease "the little cat dance." Each term is an indication of the number of gatos. The same phrase is simply the singular el pequeo gato baila.

        The French is less redundant since the plural is often purely graphical and does not mean, in small cats dancing, aurally only section indicates the plural. Indeed, the little cat dance dance and kittens are not opposed in this place

  Some verbs, however, have more forms "to be" thought am / is the singular persons 1 and 3 but are in the plural, and this is also opposed to the past. As this verb is used as an auxiliary , the opposition of many may appear more clearly in the compound tenses : the small cat is dancing ~ the small cat s are dancing. Other determinants, however, are variable in number, as demonstratives: this ~ thesis "that ... This "/" these ... This, "Those That ~" it ... Then "/" these ... There ".

  Other notable facts are:

  • The French have an indefinite article in singular and plural: a / a ~ of. The plural form is used, however, the two genres ;
  • Castilian has the singular and the plural for both genders: a / ~ unos una / unas. Note that the use of these plurals is not identical to that of French;
  • English has no plural indefinite article and does not distinguish between the definite article singular the plural: a / the ~ o / the.

  Another example found in a majority of languages is the presence of multiple names and / or putting a singular verb adjectives and / or an adjective in the plural: one finds there a kind of factorization. For example we would write either "s only the first and tenth letter is uppercase s" or "s only the first and tenth letter s s s are capitalized," meaning "the first letter is capitalized, the tenth letter is a capital letter, other letters are not capitalized. " This rating system is simply equivalent to what the development in mathematics (here, development of the operation or on the names and the verb that follows).

  Collective and singulative

  The collective is not necessarily counted among the numbers of a language. It may indeed occur only in limited circumstances and should not be possible for all variable words of that language. The singulative works similarly.

  Collective

  In ancient Greek

  For example, there is a group in ancient Greek. It exists only kind neutral, including the plural, whatever the model variation is characterized by an ending - (-a brief). The neutral call a plural verb in the singular : / t Zoia trkhei not * / ta Zoia trkhousin (at least that's taught grammar school in fact, the plural is found even in classic authors: cf. Bizos Mr. Greek Syntax). Indeed, this phrase is translated more precisely as "all animals short," any animal short "," short animality "as" animals run. "

  English

  Conversely, some English words are inherently collective, but appear as singular and require, in the language supported, a plural verb: the case for Police, Government or team. One might say The Police are Arriving ("persons belonging to the police arrive") instead of The Police IS Arriving for "the police arrive," or The orchestra are playing (literally, "the orchestra plays nt). As a plural's The Government will mean either "all members of a government" but "governments (in several countries, several types), the collective value disappearing.

  The uncountable, however, are morphologically singular and require singular verbs well, unlike the previous terms, and therefore can not take the indefinite article: luggage "baggage" or news "news." For example: my heavy luggage and non est trs *... are very heavy, "my bags are very heavy." Here we find a structure similar to that of the Greek as to understand "all the baggage, where the verb in the singular.

  To designate a portion of these collectives, we must use a structure resembling a singulative, that is to say, a singular from a plural: a piece of news a "new" but has no * news (let alone a * new). The news luggage or tea are served to correct since The two numbers.

  In German and Dutch

  German and Dutch, the prefix ge-form nouns with collective meaning:

  • das Gebirge (German), het gebergte (nerl.) = Mountain (der Berg, berg = mountain);
  • das Geflgel, het gevogelte = birds (= der Flgel wing; Vogel = bird);
  • Die Gebrder of the brothers gebroeders = (der Bruder, De Broe (de) r = s brother);
  • Die Geschwister (German) = siblings (die Schwester = sister), but gezusters (nerl.) = sisters (of zus (b) = sister).

  In French

  Some French words are always in the singular but collective sense. This is the case for (the) staff, (the) material, (the) grass. To designate a unit of the collective structure is used singulative: as a "staff member", "an item of equipment", "a blade of grass"; paraphrases that can be put in the plural: "several staff members are gone. "

  However, there are the administrative language use the plural personal emphasis on the various categories that constitute the staff. This practice is endorsed by the French government sites (eg, "The management personnel discharging duties in the public schools, the headquarters of National Education"). Finally, in the military context there is a corresponding amount of personal noun to mean "individual." See also the conditions for use of materials, herbs.

  There is a reluctance on the French verb agreement when the subject is a collective name. According to the normative literature (thus excluding the figures of styles like syllepsis ):

  • "If this name is used without addition of the name, the verb is singular.

  Ex: The crowd screams.

  • whether this name is followed by a supplement of plural noun, the verb is singular if one focuses on the whole, the plural in focusing on the complement. "

  Ex: A multitude of desert spreads (or spreads es) on the field .

  • "When the partnership is preceded by a definite article, a possessive or a demonstrative adjective, the verb must be put in the singular. "

  Ex: The multitude of locusts spread (-) on the field .

  singulative

  The singulative is found in other languages: you can define it as a singular form marked while the plural (or dual, etc.). Is not. It generally sets, objects that are encountered most often collectively qu'indiviuelle.

  Case of Breton

  The Breton (but also other Celtic languages ^{The case of pairs}

  Objects from pairs are special cases. Some languages have a gender battle to treat and in default and in the language concerned, the same pair will be treated either as a single set in two parts, sometimes as two objects. Examples :

  • French: pants, English (a pair of) trousers
  • French: a shoe, shoes Dutch : een paar schoenen
  • French: goggles, a pair of glasses, German : eine Brille
  • French: scissors, Denmark : in saks.

  A given language does not necessarily address all pairs in the same way and may also be variations in usage over time , or as the register of language. Thus, in French, the phrase "my pants "to describe one piece of clothing is dated or geographically significant, although we still occasionally encounter . Can also be heard in child language or released, the term "scissors" to mean "a pair of scissors." However, as the recommended use "scissors" refers to a different tool consists of a single part, as "a telescope, an instrument with a single glass, stands out" a pair of glasses. "

  The linguistic processing of the pairs is particularly relevant body parts:

  • in English , mustache can mean the whole or each half-mustache mustache
  • in Hungary , parts of the body forming a pair (as well as gloves, boots etc..) are treated as a whole:
    • A szemem (singular) Gyenge "My eyes are weak"

  If one wants to talk with one eye for example, we employ the word Fl "half":

  • Fl szemmel "with an eye" literally "with half of the eyes."

  • the Finnish did the same compounds puoli word "half":

  • silmpuoli "blind" and not "half-eye."

  Collective Numerals

  In various languages, there are special forms of numerals to express a set of n units. If in French, you know ten, twelve, twenty, etc.., It is more difficult to translate some Russian terms for example who have no direct equivalent:

  • = a set of two (instead of / = two)
  • = a set of three (instead of = three)
  • = a set of four (instead of = four), etc..

  Indeed, the French terms more or less similar ( duo , pair , trio , quadriga , quarters, quatrain , etc..) are usually reserved for special purposes (music, poetry, games, etc..). They say such fluent Russian , either literally of us there was a (trio / group of three), instead of: we were three .

  In Russian, these terms can introduce only male nouns, which is not true of their equivalents in other languages as the Koryak.

  Esperanto adds the suffix-op on behalf of many to mean a group of that size:

  • triopo = trio, group three (noun)
  • or walking duope = we walked two (adverb).

  In Indo-European , could denote ordinals belonging to a group without indication of rank: * dekm-o-"belonging to a group of ten", "one of ten".

  Many of the names of numbers

  In classical Armenian , numerals agree in number with the name: but if one can not be in the singular, and two, three, four, five or plural, beyond the speaker to choose between singular and plural: he can say for example six or six horse-SG-PL horses.

  Number Reverse

  The Kiowa and the languages of the family Kiowa-Tanoan have three numbers (singular, dual, plural) and have over a particular system of marking number, called inverse number (English: In this scheme, each count noun has what many call an inherent or habitual, and is not marked if used to that number. When a name appears to reverse a number (atypical), this is marked by bending.

  Kiowa

  suffix = g inverse number

  Kiowa

  Class names	singular	duel	plural
  I	-	-	-G
  II	-G	-	-
  III	-G	-	-G

  table class = "wikitable" style = "font-family: 'DejaVu Sans', 'Doulos SIL', 'Lucida Grande', 'Segoe UI', 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Adobe Std Pi', 'Lucida Sans Unicode' 'Chrysanthi Unicode' Code2000, Gentium, GentiumAlt 'TITUS Cyberbit Basic', 'Bitstream Vera Sans', 'Bitstream Cyberbit', 'Kaku Gothic Pro Hiragino', 'Matrix Unicode', sans-serif; font-size: 110 % line-height: 1.2 "> I. BTES (singular or dual) + -G tsg (plural) 'Horse' t! ay (singular or dual) + -G t! aym (plural) Egg ' II. thse (dual or plural) + -G thseg (singular) Bone ' tha (dual or plural) + -G the (singular) 'Wife' III. k! n (duel) + -G k! d (singular or plural) 'Tomato' EI (duel) + -G b (singular or plural) 'Bread, grain'

  Jemez

  suffix-sh = inverse number Expression of the number of occurrences

  Some languages have adverbs indicating the number of occurrences of the action. So in English: once (once), twice (twice), thrice (literary or old: three times). In German, we find einmal, zweimal, Dreimal (and vielmals, "many times"), etc..

  In some cases, the verb can express itself by a number of occurrences. Eg in French: encore , Mrs. St..

  "No, I said twice. Must I repeat? "

  - Edmond Rostand , Cyrano de Bergerac , Act I, Scene IV.

  In many languages , the verbal score can distinguish type aspectual , often in addition to the agreement, singular / nonsingular. Thus the Chechen distinguishes semelfactive (single action) of the iterative (multiple effect). Examples:

  Number	Semelfactive	Iterative
  Singular object	loallu (A person driving a 1 time thing)	loellu (One person drives a thing several times)
  Plural object	loaxku (A person drives a number of things 1 times)	loexku (A person drives a number of things several times)

  Related articles

  • Duel (grammar)
  • Genre
  • Person
  • Case
  • Grammatical feature
  • Uncountable
  • Distributive
  • Multiplicative adverb
  • Individual
  • Plural tantum
  • Plural internal

  References

  1. Cf a brief discussion of the data in Corbett, Greville G., Numbers, Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics, P240.8.C67 2000, ISBN 0 521 64016 4
  2. See Nicolas, David (2006) Solid / accountant. In D. Godard, L. Roussarie and F. Corblin (ed.), Smanticlopdie: semantic dictionary http://www.semantique-gdr.net/dico/index.php/Massif_/_comptable
  3. See also the cognitive point of view of Ronald Langacker.
  4. Dictionary of Linguistics, Cambridge 1991 ( ISBN 2-03-340308-4 )
  5. Introduction to Linguistics, HAGleason, Cambridge, 1969
  6. ^{a and b} Balthasar Bickel and Johanna Nichols, Inflectional morphology, in Language Typology and Syntactic Description, vol.III: Grammatical Categories & the Lexicon, ed. Timothy Shopen, Cambridge University Press, 2007
  7. In Norway for example, the ending is the same for all people of a time ⁽³ included): Jeg / du / han, hun / vi / dere / de in st.
  8. We include the Robert and Nathan, Grammar, Nathan, 1995, ( ISBN 2-09-180328-6 )
  9. ^{a and b} The case of Robert and Nathan, pg 19, 27, is: "A flock of sheep blocked / barred the road." "
  10. Otto Jespersen, The philosophy of grammar, Gallimard ( ISBN 2-07-072555-3 )
  11. Example Quebec : "She had put her old pair of shorts (Jacques Poulin, Volkswagen Blues, Actes Sud - Babel ( ISBN 2-7427-1800-1 ), p.164).
  12. The first part of the title of the book of Jerome K. Jerome , Three Men in a Boat is translated into Russian by , lit. "(A) trio (one) boat."
  13. John Haudry, The Indo-European, Presses Universitaires de France (Que sais-je), 2nd edition 1984.
  14. Sprott (1992), Weigel (1993), Merrifield (1959); Wonderly, Gibson, & Kirk (1954), Watkins & McKenzie (1984), Mithun (1999).

  Bibliography

  • Collectively, the number, revised language Facts No. 2, Paris, September 1993 [ read online ]
  • Merrifield, William (1959), (Vol. 25, pp. 269-271).
  • Mithun, Marianne (1999), (pp. 81-82, 444-445). Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-23228-7.
  • Nicolas, David (2002),
  • Sprott, Robert (1992), University of Chicago, USA).
  • Watkins, Laurel J. & McKenzie, Parker (1984), Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-4727-3.
  • Weigel, William F. (1993). "Morphosyntactic Toggle", Papers From The 29th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (Vol. 29, pp. 467-478). Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
  • Wonderly, Gibson, and Kirk (1954). "Number in Kiowa: Nouns, Demonstrative, and Adjectives", International Journal of American Linguistics (Vol. 20, pp. 1-7).

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