Grammatical Number

Types of numbers

The number must be distinguished from the use of numeral which, them, indicate a mathematical quantity précise : indeed, in the majority of the languages, the number indicates only one vague quantity. If, in the majority of the Indo-European Languages modern, the number limits to a vague binary opposition ( singular : a unit, plural : several units), there exists other case of figure utilizing a cutting more précis :

the singular , which represents a unit of the lemme exactly; ;
the singulatif , which represents a unit drawn from a unit normally composed of several units (in Breton, in Arab). The singulatif one is noticed because it is marked (by a morpheme, for example), contrary to the form plurielle ;
the duel , which represents two units exactly (it is for example the case in Slovenien Lituanien, , Sorabe, Greek old, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arab and French Langue of the signs). This number does not announce necessarily an emotional proximity (“us two”) ;
the triel , which represents three units exactly (it is the case in certain Australian languages and austronésiennes the such Mwotlap) ;
the quadriel , which represents four units exactly (it is the case in Sursunga of New Ireland) ;
the paucal or pauciel , restricted plural, which represents a small number of units (it is the case, for example, in Warlpiri, Hopi, Arab for some names, or in Russian in-on this side 5 for the few names where it did not amalgamate with the singular genitive) ;
the plural , which represents several (more one, two, three or four, according to the existence of a duel, triel or quadriel) unités ;
the collective , which represents several units considered as a unit (present into Breton, in old Greek, exceptionally in English).
the partitive , which represents part of a whole indénombrable, this last being often represented by a collective feature, if one considers it in French or English entirety (present, and marked by “ … ”, “ … ” or by an adverbial phrase like “ a little… ”, “ many… ” but assimilated in the singular for the rules of agreements). The languages with variation generally note it by the Génitif.

It is understood that no language uses all these numbers. Each one makes use however of a system of oppositions : singulier ~ plural (French, English, Turkish), singulier ~ duel ~ plural (old Greek, Sanskrit, Slovenien), singulier ~ duel ~ paucal ~ plural (hopi), etc Of rare languages, of which the Pirahã, do not know a grammatical number.

Other cases, the such Augmentative or the Intensif are returned by a plural in certain languages (in Hebrew for example).

Massive names and count nouns

One traditionally carries out a difference between the count nouns (which one can make precede without difficulty by numeral, of some , etc), such as: pencil, cat, gesture, urgent , and the massive names , or of mass , or not accountants , whom it appears difficult to pluralize, for semantic reasons rather than morphological: wine, clay, courage, disorder . The latter are used indeed in the plural only at the price of a shift in meaning (Métonymie): of the wines means kinds of wines , of the disorders can mean occurrences of disorder (the massive term not implying obligatorily that they are concrete things).

The difference between massive and countable names is not treated in the same way in various languages. Thus, where we tell to potatoes rather, Russian will tell to potato (картошка), this one being regarded to some extent as a matter rather than like an accumulation of discrete objects of comparable nature. In the same way, so in Italian (and French), spaghetti (S) is a plural, in English spaghetti is a name of mass.

The names of mass should not be confused with the collective names , such as: a team, a pack, a horde, a crowd, a poplar plantation … a collective name indicates “ a meeting of entities, in addition isolable, conceived like a specific entity ”. It constitutes itself a count noun (ex: two teams, some packs …)

Various kinds of plural

Certain languages have two or several plurals. The Krou for example (spoken language with the Liberia and in Ivory Coast) has a singular and two plurals:

one of plurals indicates a together unspecified of two or several objects. Ex: an unspecified group men, any set of books.
other plural indicates a group of objects connected to each other in a certain manner. Ex: a group of men of the same tribe, a certain number of volumes of a collection.

Expression of the number

In the inflected languages

The number, in the inflected languages and agglutinant, is indicated by the morphology. According to whether the lemma is a noun, a pronoun or a verb, the expression of the number will take very variable forms (such language varies only the pronouns, such other the names, the pronouns and the verbs, etc). For example, while being limited to the nominal system, the number can be expressed par :

Dans the following examples, the Morphème indicating the kind is underlined. To note that in certain languages the singular is as well marked as the others genres.

affixation

suffixes :

Turkish Adam ~ adamlar (“ man (S) ”),
Japanese (for the pronouns) 私 watashi ~ 私たち watashitachi (“ je ” ~ “ nous ”), etc,
Ending s :

Latin domini (singular Genitive) ~ dominorum (plural genitive) “ du/des main (S) ”),
French cat ~ chats (in French, plural is generally only graphique : nothing allows, with the ear, to distinguish cat from cats ),
English cat ~ cats (the ending - S is more fréquente ; one finds however some archaisms like OX ~ oxen , child ~ children ),
Castilian mujer ~ mujeres “ woman (S) ”, etc. ;
Slovenien jezik “ (one) langue ” ~ jezika “ (two) langues ” ~ jeziki “ (three or more) langues ”

préfixes :

Kikongo dinkongo ~ mankongo “ banana (S) ” (one could multiply the examples with all the Langues bantoues, which make variable use of prefixes of class of number) ;

simulfixes :

Arab كِتَاب kitāb ~ كُتُب kutub “ deliver (S) ” (one speaks about “ plural intern ” or “ plural brisé ”),
Peul rawaandu ~ dawaaɗi “ dog (S) ” (system of alternation consonant to initial and change of suffix of class),
Albanian murg ~ murgj “ monk (S) ” (Palatalization of the final consonant),
Gaelic of Scotland mac ~ mic “ fils ” (in opposition to “ girl (S) ”),
English : man ~ men “ man (S) ” (Metaphony),
German : Vater ~ Väter “ father (S) ” (Metaphony) ;

suprafixes :

Sanskrit aśvas (Personal singular) ~ aśvās (personal plural) “ cheval /chevaux ”,
Latin spiritŭs (personal singular) ~ spiritūs (personal plural) “ spirit (S) ”,

redoubling :

Somali buug ~ buug-ag “ deliver (S) ” (redoubling of the finale),
Nahuatl coyôtl ~ côcoyoh “ coyot (E) ” (one notes also a change of suffix),
Japanese 人 hito ~ 人人 hito-bito “ (one) personne /each personne ” (the direction is Distributif (linguistics) and not really plural). The process also meets in the Chinese languages like the Mandarin, etc. ;
wedge-shaped writing; plural can go by the redoubling of a logogramme.

Supplétisme (or complete change of word ; intervenes, in the Indo-European languages, especially for the personal pronouns)

French I ~ us ,
Greek old σύ sú (personal singular) ~ ἡμεῖς hêmeĩs (personal plural) “ tu /vous ”,
Slavic Languages : Belorusse čałaviek ~ ludzi , Polish człowiek ~ ludzie , Haut-sorabe čłowjek - ludźo , Slovenien človek ~ ljudje , Croatian čovjek - ljudi “ a homme /of the gens ”.

In Russian, the term used can vary according to whether the unit of the number is or not higher than four:
Один год /два, три, четыре года /пять, шесть… лет /двадцатьодин год /двадцатьпять лет
(a year /two, three, four years /five, six… ans /blackjack years /twenty-five ans )

On notices that in certain languages the change of number is not indicated by only one procédé : Buch ~ Bücher of German uses at the same time the Métaphonie (simulfixe) and suffixation désinentielle.

Even in the inflected languages, the number is not always marked (especially the singular, which often constitutes the lemma dictionary), all the more when it would be redundant with the contexte : in Turkish, for example “ chats ” kediler but “ will be said; two chats ” iki kedi , the name not needing more to be marked, the numeral sufficient one.

In the insulating languages

In the insulating languages, the number is not indicated morphologiquement : only the context or the Syntaxe makes it possible to know if one deals with singular or a plural (for example). The use of quantifying allows also the oppositions of nombre : in Mandarin, in the sentence 我買書 | 我买书 wǒ mǎi shū , word for word “ je | acheter | deliver (S) ”, 書 returns to the lemma of “ livre ” without indication of the number. One could translate by “ I buy a livre ” or “ I buy livres ”.

Actually, it is more correct to specify the quantité : 我買一本書 | 我买一本书 wǒ mǎi yì běn shū word for word “ je | achète | un | Specifying of the books | livre ”, that is to say “ I buy a livre ”, or 兩本書 | 两本书 liǎng běn shū “ two livres ”, or 些書 | 些书 xiē shū “ several livres ”, etc 我買書 | 我买书 wǒ mǎi shū would be included/understood in fact more like “ I buy livres ” that like “ I buy a livre ” because the singularity needs more to be marked than plurality.

The case of the personal pronouns

The personal pronouns mark all the same the opposition of number in the majority of the languages. In Mandarin, for example, whereas the concept of number is absent from morphological system ─ which is not developed, since the language is insulating ─ the pronouns have this feature grammatical well;: one associates the suffix - 們 | - 们 - men with the pronouns 我 wǒ “ je ”, 你 nǐ “ tu ” and 他 tā “ il ” to obtain 我們 | 我们 wǒmen “ nous ”, 你們 | 你们 nǐmen “ vous ” and 他們 | 他们 tāmen “ ils ”.

Indeed, to distinguish precisely I and us , it and they , for example, am necessary to the fundamental communication.

Variability of the agreement of number

In the inflected languages, in addition to the names, the pronouns and the verbs, others lexical classes are concerned with the nombre : they are primarily the determining and the Adjectif S. Généralement, they agree of number with the terms which they bring up to date. Moreover, the verb will be able to agree of number with its subject, which can be also a noun or a pronoun.

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

For example, the Castilian is very redundant since if one starts from a plural subject like gatos “ chat ” that one brings up to date by the article and a qualifying adjective, one obtains for example los pequeños gatos “ small the chats ”. This Syntagm becoming prone, the verb follows the voulu number;: los pequeños gatos bailan “ the kittens dansent ”. Each term carries an indication of the number of gatos . The same syntagm in the singular will be simply el pequeño gato yawned .

French proves less redundant since the mark of plural is often purely graphic and does not mean pas : in the kittens dance , only the article indicates plural phonetically. Indeed, the kitten dances and the kittens dance are opposed only in this endroit : pəti ʃa dɑ̃s ~ pəti ʃa dɑ̃s. The Liaison can reveal other indices normally masqués : the children .

Lastly, in English only the name, in such a syntagm, takes the marks of the number. The opposition singulier ~ plural is marked only by the verb, with the only third nobody of the présent : the small cat dances ~ the small cats dance . To the other people and at other times, the termination is same whatever the nombre : I dance “ I danse ”, we dance “ us dansons ”, the small cat (S) danced “ (S) the small (S) cat dances (NT) ”… Certain verbs, however, have more formes : “ être ” says amndt/is in the singular of the people 1 and 3 but are in the plural, and this opposition also exists with the past. As this verb is used as Auxiliaire, the opposition of number can more clearly appear with the made up forms : the small cat is dance hall ~ the small cats are dance hall . Other determinants, however, are variable of number, like the démonstratifs : this ~ thesis “ this… -ci ” /“ these… -ci ”, that ~ those “ this… -là ” /“ these… -là ”.

Other facts are notables :

French has an indefinite article in the singular and the pluriel : a / a ~ of the . The plural form is used however for both kinds ;
the Castilian has the singular and plural for both genres : a / una ~ unos / unas . To note that the use of these plurals is however not identical to that of the français ;
English does not have a plural indefinite article, and does not distinguish the singular definite article from sound pluriel : has / the ~ Ø / the .

Another example which one finds in a majority of languages is the presence of multiple names and/or adjectives singular putting a verb and/or an adjective in the plural: one finds there a kind of Factorization. For example one will write “seules la first and la tenth letter sont majuscules”, that is to say “seules les first and tenth lettres sont majuscules”, to say “the first letter is a capital letter, it tenth letter is a capital letter, the other letters are not capital letters”. This marking system is quite simply equivalent so that is the development in Mathématiques (here, development of the operation is on the nouns and the verb which follows).

Collective and singulatif

The collective is not inevitably listed among the numbers of a language. It can indeed appear only in restricted cases and not be possible for all the variable words of this language. The singulatif one functions in a similar way.

Collective

In old Greek

For example, one finds a collective in Greek old. There exists only with the neutral kind, whose plural, whatever the declension pattern , is characterized by a Désinence - ᾰ ( - has in short). The plural neutrals call a verb in the singular : τὰ ζῷα τρέχει , tà zỗia trékhei and not * τὰ ζῷα τρέχουσιν , tà zỗia trékhousin (it is at least what sign grammar scolaire ; in the facts, plural meets even in the classiques authors;: cf Greek Syntax of Mr. Bizos). Indeed, this sentence would more precisely result in “ the whole of the animals court ”, “ any animal court ”, “ the animality court ” that “ the animals courent ”.

In English

Contrary, in English certain terms are intrinsically collective but are presented in the form of singular and require, in the supported language, a verb with the pluriel : it is the case for police force , government or TEAM . One will thus say the police force are arriving (“ people belonging to the police force arrivent ”) instead of the police force is arriving for “ the police force arrive ”. A plural as the governments will mean “ either; the whole of the members of a gouvernement ” but “ the governments (several countries, several standards) ”, the collective value disappearing.

The indénombrables, however, are morphologiquement singular and require a verb in the singular well, contrary to the preceding terms, and cannot thus take the article indéfini : luggage “ bagages ” or news “ nouvelles ”. For example : my luggage is very heavy and not *… are very heavy , “ my luggage are very lourds ”. There one finds a structure close to that of the Greek since “ should be included/understood; the whole of the bagages ”, from where the verb in the singular.

To indicate only part of these collectives, a structure should be used being connected with singulatif, i.e. a singular resulting from a pluriel : has part off news “ a nouvelle ” but not *a news (and even less *a new ). The news or the luggage remains correct since the is used for the two numbers.

In French

Certain French terms are always in the singular but collective direction. It is the case for (it) personal , (it) material , (it) grass , etc One should not thus employ of plural with these terms. To indicate a unit of these collectives, it is necessary to use a singulative structure (it is what one also does in English) like “ a member of the personnel ”, “ an element of the matériel ”, “ a bit of herbe ” ; periphrases which one can then pass to the pluriel : “ several members of the personnel are partis ”.

In the administrative language, however, developed the use of plural the personnel to indicate the members of the personnel . Although incorrect from the point of view of the current standards of French grammar, this structure is comprehensible. It is however not necessary since personal indicates already the overall idea, of group of people. It acts there, more than one plural, of a secondary form resulting from a collective, which does not bear a name but that one could indicate by pluratif or plurielatif , on the singulatif model of .

One notes in French a hesitation on the agreement of the verb when the subject is a collective name. The rule says that:

if this name is employed without complement of the name, the verb is put in the singular.

Ex: crowd hurl' has .

if this name is followed of a complement of the name in the plural, the verb is put in the singular if one stresses the unit, in the plural when one stresses the complement.

Ex: a herd of sheep barr ait' (or barr' aient' ) the road .

if the collective name is preceded by a definite article, a possessive adjective or a demonstrative adjective, the verb is put obligatorily in the singular.

Ex: the herd of sheep barr' ait' the road .

Singulatif into Breton

The singulatif one finds in others langues : one can define it as a form in the singular marked while plural (or duel, etc) are not it. The Breton (but also of others Celtic Languages) is famous for this feature original : the form not marked for “ arbre ” is gwez , with the plural-collective, while the singulatif one is gwez-enn (“ only one arbre ”). This last knows also a regular plural gwezenn-where which indicates several trees taken individually.

The case of the pairs

The objects going per pairs constitute particular cases. Certain languages have a duel kind to treat them; failing this and according to the language concerned, the same pair will be treated, sometimes like a single whole in two parts, sometimes like two objects. Examples:

: pants , English: (has even off) pants
: of the glasses, a pair of glasses , German: eine Shines
: of the scissors , Danish: in sax .

A given language will not treat all the pairs inevitably in the same way; there can also be variations of the use during time, or according to the Registre of language. Thus, in French, the expression “my Pantalon S” to indicate only one part of clothing is dated, even if it still sometimes is met. One can also intend the expression (incorrect) “a Ciseau” to indicate the pair (in the childish or slackened language): “a chisel” exists indeed, but indicates a different tool in only one part, just as “a Lunette” indicates very an other instrument, provided with only one glass.

The linguistic treatment of the pairs relates to the parts of the body particularly:

in English, moustache can mean the whole of the moustache or each half-moustache
in Hungarian, the parts of the body forming a pair (as well as the gloves, boots etc) is treated like a unit:

has szemen (singular) gyenge “My hands tremble”

If one wants to speak about only one eye for example, one will employ the word fél “half”:

* fél szemmel “with an eye”, literally “with half of the eyes”.

the Finnois makes in the same way with compounds of the word puoli “half”:

* silmäpuoli “one-eyed” and not “half-eye”.

Numeral collectives

In various languages, there exist special forms the numeral ones to express a whole of N units . So in French, one knows ten , a dozen, a score , etc, it is more difficult to us to translate certain Russian terms for example which do not have a direct equivalent:

двое = a whole of two (instead of два/две = two)
трое = a whole of three (instead of три = three)
четверо = a whole of four (instead of четыре = four), etc

Indeed, the more or less similar French terms (Duet, Even, Trio, Quarter, quad, Quatrain, etc) are usually reserved for particular uses (music, poetry, plays, etc). One usually says for example in Russian: насбылотрое, is literally us it was one (trio/group of three) , instead of: we were three .

Opposite number

The Kiowa and the languages of the family kiowa-tanoan have three numbers (singular, duel, plural) and present moreover one particular system of marking of the number, called number reverses (English: opposite number , number toggling ). In this diagram, each count noun has what one can call an inherent number, or usual , and it is not marked if it is employed with this number. When a name appears with an opposite number (atypical), this is marked by an inflection.

; Kiowa :

suffix - gɔ = number reverses

; Jemez :

suffix - HS = number reverses

Related articles

Kind ;

Nobody ;

Case ;

Milks grammatical ;

Indénombrable .

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