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REPRESENTATION OF THE PLURAL IN ENGLISH
Alimova Sarvinoz Sobirovna
PhD student of Samarkand State University
Annotation.
In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category
characterized by the expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. Modern English like
most other languages distinguishes two numbers: singular and plural. The meaning of singular
and plural seems to be self-explanatory, that is the opposition: one and more than one. With all
this, expression of number in different classes of English nouns presents certain difficulties for a
foreigner to master.
Keywords:
category of grammatical number, singular and plural nouns , grammatical
and stylistic features of plural nouns.
Countable nouns (or count nouns) are common nouns that can take a plural, can
combine with numerals or quantifiers (e.g. "one", "two", "several", "every", "most"), and can
take an indefinite article ("a" or "an"). Examples of countable nouns are "chair", "nose", and
"occasion". Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) differ from countable nouns in precisely that
respect: they can't take plural or combine with number words or quantifiers. Examples from
English include "laughter", "cutlery", "helium", and "furniture". For example, it is not possible to
refer to "a furniture" or "three furnitures". This is true, even though the furniture referred to
could, in principle, be counted. Thus the distinction between mass and count nouns shouldn't be
made in terms of what sorts of things the nouns refer to, but rather in terms of how the nouns
present these entities. The separate page for mass noun contains further explanation of this point.
Some words function in the singular as a count noun and, without a change in the spelling, as a
mass noun in the plural: she caught a fish, we caught fish; he shot a deer, they shot some deer;
the craft was dilapidated, the pier was chockablock with craft.
In linguistics, grammatical number is a morphological category characterized by the
expression of quantity through inflection or agreement. As an example, consider sentences
below:
That apple on the table is fresh.
Those two apples on the table are fresh.
The number of apples is marked on the noun "apple", singular number (one item) vs.
"apples", plural number (more than one item) , on the demonstrative, "that/those", and on the
verb, "is/are". Note that, especially in the second sentence, this information can be
considered redundant, since quantity is already indicated by the numeral "two".
A language has grammatical number when its nouns are subdivided into morphological
classes according to the quantity they express, such that:
Every noun belongs to a single number class. (Number partitions nouns into disjoint
classes.)
Noun
modifiers
(such
as
adjectives)
and verbs
have different forms for each number class, and must be inflected to match the number of the
nouns they refer to. (Number is an agreement category.)
This is the case in English: every noun is either singular or plural (a few, such as "fish",
can be either, according to context), and at least some modifiers of nouns namely the
demonstratives, the personal pronouns, the articles, and verbs are inflected to agree with the
number of the nouns they refer to: "this car" and "these cars" are correct, while "this cars" or
"these car" are ungrammatical.
Not all languages have number as a grammatical category. In those that do not, quantity
must be expressed directly, with numerals, or indirectly, through optional quantifiers. However,
many of these languages compensate for the lack of grammatical number with an extensive
system of measure words.
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Modern English like most other languages distinguishes two numbers: singular and
plural. The meaning of singular and plural seems to be self-explanatory, that is the opposition:
one and more than one. With all this, expression of number in different classes of English nouns
presents certain difficulties for a foreigner to master.
As already mentioned, plural and singular nouns stand in contrast as diametrically
opposite. Instances are not few, however, when their opposition comes to be neutralised. And
this is to say that there are cases when the numeric differentiation appears to be of no importance
at all. Here belong many collective abstract and material nouns. If, for instance, we look at the
meaning of collective nouns, we cannot fail to see that they denote at the same time a plurality
and a unit. They may be said to be doubly countable and thus from a logical point of view form
the exact contrast to mass nouns: they are, in fact, at the same time singular and plural, while
mass words are logically neither. The double-sidedness of collective nouns weakens the
opposition and leads to the development of either Pluralia tantum, as in: weeds (in a garden),
ashes, members, etc., or Singularia tantum, as in: wildfowl, clergy, foliage, etc.
In some cases usage fluctuates, and the two forms are interchangeable, e. g. brain or
brains: he has no brains or little brains; victuals are more common than victual; oats than oat;
similarly: His wages were high. How much wages does he get? That is a fair wage. They could
not take too much pain.
The dual nature of collective nouns is shown linguistically in various ways: by the
number of the verb or by the pronoun referring to it, as for instance, my family are early risers,
they are already here. My family is not large.
It is important to observe that the choice between singular and plural depends on the
meaning attached to the noun. Compare also: We have much fruit this year and the rich fruits of
the heroic labour of Soviet people are visible from all the corners of the earth.
Some nouns are always singular. These are nouns that designate substances (oxygen,
copper), products (cheese, fish), a block of objects (furniture), some actions (hunting, clearing
up), feelings (love, health), some vegetables and berries (potato, carrots).
Bibliography:
1. Beard, R. (1992). Number. In W. Bright (ed.) International Encyclopedia of
2. Corbett, G. (2000). Number. Cambridge University Press.
3. Deutschbein. M. System der neuenglischen Syntax, 1928; G. Сurme. A Grammar of the
English Language. London-New York, 1931.
4. Francis. W. N. The Structure of American English. New York, 1958, p. 234; see also: R.
Quirk. The Use of English. London, 1964, p. 74.
5. Fries. Ch. The Structure of English. An Introduction to the Construction of English
Sentences. London, 1963, pp. 62-63, pp.
6. Illyish B. The structure of Modern English M.- L. 1965
IQTISODIY FANLARNI O’QITISH JARAYONIDA TALABALARNING
KO’NIKMA VA MALAKALARINI SHAKLLANTIRISH
Bayzakova Dilbar Fayziyevna
Jizzax politexnika instituti
Annotatsiya:
Maqolada kasbiy tayyorgarlikni amalga oshirish, talabalarni shaxs sifatida kamolotga
yеtkazish, ularni kasbga yo’naltirish muammolari bo’yicha ish olib borish masalalari yoritilgan.
Iqtisodiy fanlarni o’qitish jarayonida talabalarning ko’nikma va malakalarini shakllantirish
bo’yicha takliflar berilgan.
Kalit so’zlar
: kasbiy mahorat, bilim, ko’nikma, malaka, bilish, komil inson.
Kеyingi yillarda mamlakatimizda ijtimoiy-iqtisodiy rivojlanishning ustuvor yo’nalishlariga
hamda xalqaro standartlar talablariga mos kеladigan oliy ta'lim tizimini yaratish bo’yicha kеng
ko’lamli ishlar amalga oshirilmoqda[1].
