VIII. Noun. The category of number

Modern English, as most other languages, distinguishes between two numbers, singular and plural (dual number). The singular number shows that one object is meant, and the plural shows that more than one object is meant. Thus, the opposition is “one – more than one”. The strong member of this opposition is the plural. Its productive formal mark is the suffix –(e)s [-z, -s, -iz]. The singular is the weak, unmarked form, characterized by the absence of the suffix. The other, non-productive ways of expressing the number opposition are vowel interchange in several relict forms (man-men), the archaic suffix –en supported by phonemic interchange (brother-brethren), borrowings from Latin and Greek (formula-formulae, phenomenon-phenomena, alumnus-alumni). There are homonymous plural forms (sheep).

With the reference to the category of number all the nouns are divided into countable and uncountable. Uncountable nouns can be of two types – singularia tantum (abstract notions – peace, courage; the names of branches of professional activity – chemistry, physics, politics /Latin plural physica, politica is used with singular verb/; the names of mass materials – water, hair; collective inanimate objects – furniture, equipment, news)

and pluralia tantum (objects consisting of two parts – scissors, jeans; expressing the idea of indefinite plurality, also a sort of collective inanimate objects – earnings, clothes, outskirts, contents, supplies – used with plural verb). Nouns denoting groups of people and animals – family, board, crew, cattle, poultry – can denote a group as a whole, treated as singular, called ‘ collective nouns’ (The Board knows about it.); or as

consisting of a number of persons or animals, termed as ‘nouns of multitude’ (Many cattle are grazing in the field.)

The necessity of expressing definite numbers of uncountable objects brought about suppletive combinations with words ‘pair’, ‘case’, ‘piece’.

The use of singularia tantum in the plural form can be lexicalized (sorts of steel, woods, glasses), or it is a case of oppositional reduction.

Oppositional reduction or oppositional substitution, is the usage of one member of an opposition in the position of the counter-member. From the functional point of view there exist two types of opp.reduction: neutralization of the categorial opposition and its transposition.

In case of neutralization one member of the opposition becomes fully identified with its counterpart. As the position of neutralization is usually filled in by the weak member of the opposition due to its more general semantics, this kind of oppositional reduction is stylistically colourless: “Man is sinful”. It is an example of neutralization of the opposition of the category of number because in the sentence the noun “man” used in the singular (the weak member of the opposition) fulfills the function of the plural counterpart (the strong member of the opposition), for it denotes the class as a whole. Neutralization takes place when countable nouns begin to function as singularia tantum nouns, denoting in such cases either abstract ideas or some mass material ‘On my birthday we always have goose’; or when countable nouns are used in the function of the absolute plural ‘The Board are not unanimous on this issue’.

Transposition takes place when one member of the opposition placed in the contextual conditions uncommon for it begins to simultaneously fulfill two functions – its own and the function of its counterpart. As a result, transposition is always accompanied by different stylistic effects: the use of uncountable nouns in the plural form ‘the sands of the desert, the snows of Kilimanjaro, the fruits of the toil’. The plural form is outstretched, transponized into the group of nouns which usually have no reference to singularity-plurality.

Glossary of Linguistic Terms

1. singular/plural/dual – единственное/множественное/двойственное

2. borrowing - заимствование

3. singularia tantum/pluralia tantum - сингулярия тантум (существительные, которые употребляются только в едиственном числе), плюралия тантум (существтительные, которые употребляются только во множественном числе)

4. abstract notions – абстрактные понятия

5. branches of professional acttivity – отрасли профессиональной деятельности

6. collective nouns - собирательные

7. nouns of multitude – существительные множества

8. oppositional reduction – сокращение оппозиции, употребление члена бинарной оппозиции вместо второго чллена, что приводит к сведению противостояния в данной оппозиции к нулю

9. lexicalization – лексикализация, возникновение у формы слова другого лексического значения

10. neutralization – нейтрализация, снятие значимости противопоставления

11. transposition – перенос значения одного члена оппозиции на другого члена оппозиции

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