Grammar
Tenses
Present
Present Simple
Present Continuous
Present Perfect
Present Perfect Continuous
Past
Past Continuous
Past Perfect
Past Perfect Continuous
Past Simple
Future
Future Simple
Future Continuous
Future Perfect
Future Perfect Continuous
Passive and Active
Parts Of Speech
Nouns
Countable and uncountable nouns
Verbal nouns
Singular and Plural nouns
Proper nouns
Nouns gender
Nouns definition
Concrete nouns
Abstract nouns
Common nouns
Collective nouns
Definition Of Nouns
Verbs
Stative and dynamic verbs
Finite and nonfinite verbs
To be verbs
Transitive and intransitive verbs
Auxiliary verbs
Modal verbs
Regular and irregular verbs
Action verbs
Adverbs
Relative adverbs
Interrogative adverbs
Adverbs of time
Adverbs of place
Adverbs of reason
Adverbs of quantity
Adverbs of manner
Adverbs of frequency
Adverbs of affirmation
Adjectives
Quantitative adjective
Proper adjective
Possessive adjective
Numeral adjective
Interrogative adjective
Distributive adjective
Descriptive adjective
Demonstrative adjective
Pronouns
Subject pronoun
Relative pronoun
Reflexive pronoun
Reciprocal pronoun
Possessive pronoun
Personal pronoun
Interrogative pronoun
Indefinite pronoun
Emphatic pronoun
Distributive pronoun
Demonstrative pronoun
Pre Position
Preposition by function
Time preposition
Reason preposition
Possession preposition
Place preposition
Phrases preposition
Origin preposition
Measure preposition
Direction preposition
Contrast preposition
Agent preposition
Preposition by construction
Simple preposition
Phrase preposition
Double preposition
Compound preposition
Conjunctions
Subordinating conjunction
Correlative conjunction
Coordinating conjunction
Conjunctive adverbs
Interjections
Express calling interjection
Grammar Rules
Preference
Requests and offers
wishes
Be used to
Some and any
Could have done
Describing people
Giving advices
Possession
Comparative and superlative
Giving Reason
Making Suggestions
Apologizing
Forming questions
Since and for
Directions
Obligation
Adverbials
invitation
Articles
Imaginary condition
Zero conditional
First conditional
Second conditional
Third conditional
Reported speech
Linguistics
Phonetics
Phonology
Semantics
Pragmatics
Linguistics fields
Syntax
Morphology
Semantics
pragmatics
History
Writing
Grammar
Phonetics and Phonology
Reading Comprehension
Elementary
Intermediate
Advanced
NUMBER
المؤلف: David Hornsby
المصدر: Linguistics A complete introduction
الجزء والصفحة: 124-6
2023-12-19
954
NUMBER
The category of number in English primarily affects nouns, and only minimally verbs (for example, in the was/were singular/ plural opposition for the verb to be), and has the values singular and plural, the latter as we have seen being generally marked by a suffix to a nominal stem. From an anglophone perspective, it is easy to assume that these are the only two relevant values, but number systems like that of English do not in fact represent the norm cross-linguistically.
A few languages, for example Pirahã (spoken by around 250 people in Amazonas, Brazil), are believed to have no category of number, while others have systems which mark not just singular and plural but singular, dual (inflection for two items), trial (for three) or paucal (a small number of items). The pronoun system of Sursurunga, a language spoken in New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, has a five-value system that distinguishes singular, dual, trial, quadral (for four items) and plural in its pronoun system:
The number category differs not only in the number of values expressed in different languages, but also in the way these values are expressed. In English, for example, nouns must generally be marked singular or plural, but in some languages there is an unspecified or general form which commits the speaker to no number value. In the Bayso language of Southern Ethiopia, for example, the base form of the noun is unmarked for number, and there are separate suffixes for singular, paucal and plural (2000: 11):