Chapter 2 The category of number

1. Preliminary remarks
Morphologically, nouns are open-class items. At the formal level, they are characterized by the morpho-syntactic features of number, gender and case. The category of number is reflected in the singular-plural opposition. Both in the singular and plural there is a contrast between definite and indefinite forms (a book vs. the book; books vs. the books). Number is a grammatical category which encodes quantification over entities or events denoted by nouns or nominal elements. It derives from the ability to perceive something as a token, an instance of a class of referents, and the ability to differentiate between one and more than one instance of the referent (i.e. the plurality of instances). Since number can refer to both entities and events, it has been suggested that a linguistic system evinces both nominal number and verbal number, the latter phenomenon also being referred to as pluractionality. However, since pluractionality can be regarded as an expression of situation type, it is more readily related to the category of aspect rather than number. This chapter will focus on nominal number. Traditional approaches to the English number deal with two oppositions: (a) the opposition SINGULAR (which denotes one) PLURAL (which denotes more than one) and (b) the distinction between COUNT(ABLE) and UNCOUNT(ABLE) (MASS) nouns. The first opposition is grammatical in the sense that one of the two terms, namely the plural one, is marked morphologically (usually by the morphological marker s) while the singular one is the unmarked term. The second distinction, closely related to the first, is semantic in nature and has to do with the distinction between nouns denoting entities with divided reference (i.e. entities which can be counted) and nouns denoting entities with undivided reference (i.e. entities which cannot be counted 35

and therefore do not vary for number). The difference between countable nouns (e.g. book, girl, flower, etc) and uncountable/ mass nouns (e.g. water, copper, sugar, etc.) is that the entities belonging to the latter set cannot be easily individualizable so as to be able to count them (Baciu 2004b). The English number system applies to nouns and NPs without exception and is grammatically relevant with regard to: noun inflection: generally, plural nouns are morphologically marked (books) while singular nouns are unmarked concord between nouns and determiners (this book vs. these books; a book vs. several books; another penny vs. *another money) subject-verb agreement (This book is mine vs. Those books are mine) pronoun-antecedent agreement (I have read that book. It is very interesting)

2. The conceptual basis of the count/mass distinction

2.1. Count and mass nouns Before embarking on a detailed analysis of the subclasses of English nouns, we need to consider the count-mass distinction. This is a complex issue, on which a substantial literature has been written1. For our purposes, we shall adopt the theoretical frameworks of cognitive semantics and cognitive grammar relying namely on Langacker (2008), Pelletier (1979), and Quine (1979). Traditional grammars identify two basic types of nouns count and mass on the basis of the contrasting grammatical behaviour of these nouns. The differing grammatical properties of count and mass nouns are symptomatic of a fundamental conceptual opposition. These two basic subclasses correspond to the conceptual archetypes object and substance (Langacker 2008). These two broad classes into which
1

There are some fine observations in McCawley (1975); an influential paper which includes cross-linguistic evidence is Chierchia (1998b) See Langacker (2008:128-146) for an account within the Cognitive grammar framework. Markman (1985, 1989:168-74) is concerned with childrens acquisition of the count-mass distinction and suggests a link between superordinate categories and mass terms.

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English nouns are divisible2 are exemplified in (1). Typical for count nouns are names of physical objects (e.g. diamond, book, cup), and for mass nouns, the names of physical substances (e.g. gold, meat, water). (1) Count nouns: diamond, book, cup, pencil, house, table, tree, apple, dog, neck, edge, county, lake, cloud, question, idea, joy, complaint, etc. Mass nouns: gold, meat, water, wood, coal, glue, beer, skin, steel, air, smoke, moisture, electricity, nonsense, anger, righteousness, complaining, etc. However, both classes include terms for other types of entities. Count nouns, for instance, also label creatures (dog), parts of larger wholes (neck), or geographical regions (county), as well as entities that are either nebulous (cloud) or abstract (idea). Similarly, mass nouns designate entities whose substantial nature is rather tenuous (air, electricity, smoke) or entities which are wholly non-physical (nonsense, righteousness, joy). Thus the descriptive labels object and substance apply straightforwardly only to prototypical members, not to all members (Langacker 2008:129). The count/mass distinction has been established and characterized in terms of distinctive grammatical properties. Some of these properties are given in (2), taking diamond and gold as prototypical instances of the count and mass nouns categories. (2) (a) They are looking for *diamond/gold (b) a diamond/*gold (c) most *diamond/gold (d) all diamond/gold (e) a lot of *diamond/gold The examples in (2) highlight the following distinctive grammatical properties that hold for all the nouns in (1): only a mass noun can stand alone as a complete nominal expression, without a determiner only a count noun permits the indefinite article a(n)
2

Cross-cutting this classification is the distinction between common and proper nouns. The examples in (1) are all common nouns.

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a number of determiners including the quantifiers most, all, and a lot of only occur with mass nouns

Count nouns designate entities that can be counted: one diamond, two diamond, three diamonds, etc. Countability correlates with the possibility of forming a plural (e.g. diamonds) that designates multiple instances of the type specified by the singular noun (diamond). By contrast, mass nouns do not form plurals (*golds), nor are their referents countable: *one gold, *two gold(s), *three gold(s). The referent of a typical mass noun lacks the discreteness required for the recognition and counting of multiple instances. Although only a count noun can be pluralized, interestingly enough, a plural functions grammatically as a mass noun. Going through the properties in (2), we notice that gold and diamonds behave alike, in contrast to the singular form diamond: (3) (a) They are looking for *diamond/gold/diamonds (b) a diamond/*gold/*diamonds (c) most *diamond/gold/diamonds (d) all *diamond/gold/diamonds (e) a lot of *diamond/gold/diamonds With regard to other morpho-syntactic properties, however, plurals do not behave identically to mass nouns. By its very nature, a plural (e.g. diamonds) refers to multiple instances of the type (diamond). Therefore a plural portrays the mass it designates as consisting of individual particles salient enough to be countable (Langacker 2008:130). Consequently, plurals co-occur with numerals, plural demonstratives and certain quantifiers, whereas mass nouns do not, as the examples in (4) illustrate: (4) (a) those diamonds vs. that gold (b) these diamonds vs. this gold (c) many diamonds vs. much gold (d) few diamonds vs. little gold (e) several diamonds vs. *several gold (f) numerous diamonds vs. *numerous gold

38

These morpho-syntactic properties are symptomatic of underlying conceptual differences. In what follows we shall assume two properties as basic for an act of individuation (Langacker 2008:131): an entity can be construed as being discretely bounded in time (and/or space) an entity can be construed as being continuous (i.e. amorphous and not inherently limited) in space (and/or time)

2.2. Conceptual basis The grammatical distinction between count and mass nouns is reflective of a basic conceptual distinction. A count noun profiles an entity construed as being bounded in a certain dimension. An entity is bounded in a certain dimension if the various locations along this dimension contain its parts, but not the whole entity. Defined more abstractly, a thing is bounded where there is some limit to the set of constitutive entities Langacker 2008:136). Bounding can be effected on the basis of contrast with surroundings3 (if bounded in space they have contour, i.e. they have a certain spatial shape4or form), internal configuration5, and function6. These three means of bounding are not mutually exclusive. An alphabet for instance is delimited not only by
3

Contrast with surroundings is achieved by mentally scanning through an entity in any direction and reaching a point at which the entity fails to be manifested. The limit is defined by this point of contrast where we detect a transition from the presence of the entity in question to its absence. For instance, a beep is the occurrence of a certain kind of noise bounded by silence on either end. In hearing or imagining a beep, we first encounter a transition from the absence of that noise to its presence, and then from its presence to its absence. If further scanning through time reveals more of the sound, it represents the onset of another beep and not the continuation of the previous one. 4 Conceiving an entity as being bounded does not depend on being able to impose boundaries, i.e. a precise line of demarcation in any specific place. Boundaries may be fuzzy, but entities bounded fuzzily are still bounded. For instance, there is no precise boundary between the handle of a bat and its barrel, yet each is a bounded region distinguishable from the other. 5 For instance, a car consists of a certain set of parts connected in a particular manner to form a structured whole. To recognize an instance of this type, it is sufficient to observe the requisite parts in the appropriate configuration. At this point, transition from car to non-car, i.e. contrast with surroundings, seems inessential. The noun alphabet provides a more abstract example of bounding by configuration. An alphabet is a set of letters limited in number and occurring in a certain sequence (i.e. order) A>B>C>.X>Y>Z. The referent of the noun alphabet is bounded by the first and last elements in the sequence.

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configuration (a fixed sequence of a limited number of items with initial and final letters) but also by function: it comprises the full set of letters used together to represent the sounds of a certain language (Langacker 2008: 137-138). A mass noun referent, on the other hand, is unbounded, i.e. amorphous and not limited. An entity that is unbounded is continuous and can be defined as not having parts in the dimension in which it is continuous. An entity that is unbounded can be found in its entirety in the respective dimension. In distinguishing count and mass nouns, bounding should not be considered by itself. As Langacker 2008:139) has put it, it shares the burden with three conceptual factors: homogeneity, contractibility and replicability (my emphasis). The referent of a mass noun is construed as being internally homogenous. A typical mass noun such as water designates a substance indentified by various prototypical qualities: a liquid of low viscosity, largely transparent, tasteless, odourless, non-alcoholic, etc. Ideally, any sample of water will reveal these properties. Homogeneity thus consists of being qualitatively the same throughout7. The homogeneity of a mass is dependent on the lack of intrinsic bounding. These two factors are responsible for another property on mass nouns, namely contractibility. By this we mean that any portion of a mass of a given type is itself a valid instance of that type (Langacker 2008:141). If we consider the water in a lake, any portion selected for individual examination can be described as water, no matter the size. In other words, if the referent of water is divided, what is left is still water. This does not hold for count nouns: part of a lake is not itself a lake. Similarly, the tail of a dog is not a dog, the sequence ABCD, although part of an alphabet, is not an alphabet, or if the referent of a book or a car is divided, what remains is no longer a book or a car. The homogeneity and lack of bounding also lead to another property that is characteristic of a mass: expansibility. The mass obtained by combining any two instances of a given type is a valid instance of that type. By adding some sugar to the sugar already in a bowl, we obtain a larger mass that also counts as a single instance of
6

If we consider a wooden baseball bat, physical examination reveals no obvious boundary between the portions referred to as the handle and the barrel. The bat gets thicker as we scan from handle to barrel, but with no evident point of transition. The demarcation, i.e. contrast with surroundings, depends primarily on the function served: the handle is where we grip the bat, and the barrel is the part that hits the ball. 7 Contrast with a typical count noun such as pencil, for instance, which does not display such qualitative uniformity or homogeneity. Instead, it is usual for differnt parts (lead, shaft, eraser) to consist of different substances (e.g. graphite, wood, rubber). With respect to qualitative properties, a typical count noun referent is heterogeneous.

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sugar which later we can refer to as that sugar or the sugar in the bowl, but not *those two sugars8. This property does not apply to count noun referents. Several dogs put together do not form a larger dog. Langacker (2008:142) proposes another property that is the opposite of expansibility and which he calls replicability and which applies to count nouns. Because a count noun specifies bounding (i.e. some limit to the constitutive entities), replicability provides a way of determining when one instance ends and another begins. These opposing properties of expansibility and replicability that apply to mass and count noun referents respectively are indicated by more vs. another: when two instances are combined, the result is more sugar but another bowl. 2.3. Variable construal Given its conceptual nature, the count/mass distinction reflects human capacity for conceiving or portraying a situation or an entity in alternate ways. This capacity has the consequence that categorization can be fluid to a certain extent. For a large number of English nouns, both a countnoun variant and mass-noun variant are well established as conventional linguistic units. Though novel, the mass-noun use of lake in (5a) illustrates a general pattern for construing a bounded entity as an unbounded mass. Conversely, the count-noun use of water in (5b) follows a general pattern for construing a mass as a bounded entity: (5) (a) You need a lot of lake for speedboat race. (b) I want two lemonades and a water. For a more detailed analysis of the recategorization of mass nouns as count ones and the reverse, see Section 5. At this point, suffice it to say that generally one variant is perceived as basic, while the other one constitutes a semantic extension. For water, the mass-noun sense is clearly primary. In contrast, diamond is primarily a count noun, with a secondary mass-noun use (e.g. Diamond is one of the hardest substances known). With many nouns, however, the two variants are of comparable
8

Contractibility and expansibility correspond to subdivisibility and additivity, respectively, in mereological logic (i.e. the logic of the part-whole relationship). Additivity can be identified by Quines (1979) test of cumulative reference: any sum of parts, which are sugar, is sugar.

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status; examples of such nouns include: rock, stone, brick, tile, glass, hair, fur, cloth, rope, string, cake, squash, steak, thought, insight, pain, rest, law, principle, etc. As a mass noun, each designates a physical or abstract substance, whereas the count-noun counterpart designates a bounded entity composed of that substance. 2.4. The sortal/non-sortal distinction Count terms like man, dog, star, river, etc are also called sortals, while mass nouns like water, smoke, ice, gold, etc. are called non-sortals. The philosophical sortal/non-sortal distinction thus parallels the grammatical count/mass distinction which grammars have acknowledged for many years. As shown by philosophers of language, the purpose of the sortal distinction was to be able to apply number to it in a definite manner and not to permit any arbitrary division of the sortal term. Non-sortals do not allow number to apply to them and arbitrary division into parts is an identification test (Pelletier 1979). The purpose of the philosophical distinction is to give a semantic characterization. The sortal/non-sortal distinction is intended to divide predicates that provide a criterion for counting from predicates that do not provide such a criterion. Pelletier (1979:3) argues that in a space appropriate to the sortal S, we can count how many Ss there are in that space; but in a space appropriate to a non-sortal M we cannot straightforwardly ask how may Ms there are. Thus we can ask how many men are in a room, but not how many waters (without changing the sense of water). Non-sortal terms are collective in the sense that if M is a non-sortal term, then M is true of any part of an entity of which M is true and it is divisive to the extent to which M is true of any part of an entity of which M is true. The grammatical distinction count/mass applies to simple noun phrases only, whereas the philosophical distinction sortal/non-sortal applies to complex noun phrases as well. For instance, white man is sortal and dirty water non-sortal. Moreover, if the grammatical distinction applies to nouns only, the philosophical distinction sortal/non-sortal is said to be instrumental in individuating other types of entities as well, namely situations. Verb phrases such as build a house, write a letter, buy a book (described as events) share properties characteristic of sortals and are bounded in the dimension of time. Situations designated by verb phrases such playing the piano, walking in the park are describable in terms of the properties 42

of individuation characteristic of non-sortals. These entities, named processes, are conceived as being unbounded, i.e. continuous in the dimensions of time and space (Pelletier 1979).

3. Sortal terms Count(able) nouns

3.1 The semantic and morphosyntactic properties of sortals (i.e. count(able) nouns) As mentioned above, countable nouns are considered to be sortals at the semantic level. This semantic characterization is based on the process of individuation. As Baciu (2004b:37-8) points out no division of a sortal term in the spatial area can yield the entity as a whole. [....] sortal terms have in-built-modes of dividing their reference so that we distinguish between one rabbit, another rabbit, etc. Countable or sortal terms are also known as general terms, which are the opposite of singular terms. Quine (1960:90) argues that semantically the distinction between singular and general terms is that a singular term names or purports to name one (unique) object, [...] while a general term is true of each, severally, of any number of objects. Having a certain shape or form is another characteristic of general terms. From a pragmatic point of view, people employ sortal terms when they want to designate individual objects (Stefanescu 1988:46). The morphosyntactic properties of sortals (i.e. count(able) nouns) mentioned in (6) are the reflexes of their semantic behaviour discussed in Section 2. (6) they are individuated by means of the indefinite article a(n); they co-occur with cardinal numerals; they allow such countable quantifiers as many, few, each, every; they take the plural morpheme; they trigger plural agreement with the verb and plural anaphoric pronouns.

I prefer a dog to a cat. Dogs are more interesting.

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At Beckford in Worcestershire fifty hedgehogs have been brought in by worried animal lovers. I invited a few friends around on Saturday night. Youve been reading too many romantic novels. Every child will receive a certificate at the end of the course. There are three different series of the computer. We think they were all made in South Korea.

3.2. The plural morpheme

The vast majority of English countable nouns (sortals) form the plural by adding the inflectional suffix s. Although the plural form has often been taken as the main criterion for distinguishing between countable and uncountable nouns (i.e. mass nouns/ non-sortals), this criterion is notoriously unreliable. As the examples below show the plural suffix s is but one possible realization of the plural morpheme9, i.e. one of the allomorphs of the morpheme which stands for the feature [+ plural]: (7) Singular a) dog book table b) sheep fish deer
9

Plural dogs books tables sheep fish deer

Plural allomorph -s

In one the most readable histories of the English language Pyles and Algeo (1982:116) sum up the development of English plural formation as follows: One of the most significant differences between Old English and Modern English nouns is that Old English had no device for indicating plurality alone that is, unconnected with the concept of case. It was not until Middle English times that the plural nominativeaccusative es (from OE -as) drove out the other case forms of the plural (save for the comparatively rare genitive of measure). Even in the root-consonant stems [like foot], the mutated forms [like feet] were, as we have seen, not exclusively plural forms. The en ending (from OE -an), surviving in oxen, likewise did not indicate plurality alone in earlier periods; in Old English, as a backward glance at the plural of oxa will show, the oblique singular forms had an and were thus identical with the nominative-accusative plural form oxan.

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series species gallows c) foot mouse d) ox child e) knife wife

series species gallows feet mice oxen children knives wives Ablaut -en -s + F/V Rule

In the above singular/plural pairs, the realization of the plural morpheme varies from one set to another. The first set includes nouns whose plural forms end in s, being thus regular. The set under (7b) includes nouns which make no formal distinction between the singular and the plural and which have been singled out in structural grammars as having zero plural (Quirk et. al 1985). The set under (7c) includes nouns whose plural form is not marked by an inflectional suffix but by Ablaut (vowel change). The set in (7e) includes nouns such as knife, wife, leaf, life, wolf, etc. These nouns are subject to the F/V rule10 when they are pluralized. In other words, their plural is marked not only by the inflectional suffix s but also by voicing, a phonological phenomenon whereby the final voiceless consonant of the stem is replaced by its voiced counterpart. The set under (7d) includes Old English plural forms. All these suffixes represented above as (e)s, -en, -, or s + voicing mean plural and are therefore allomorphs of the plural morpheme (i.e. the morpheme that stands for the feature [+ plural]). These idiosyncratic plurals depend on the identity of the stem to which they are attached. To account for the distribution of these allomorphs, the strategy in generative phonology has been to propose a single underlying form and provide phonological rules that adjust this form according to the context in which it occurs. In the case of Plural, the underlying form in English is s. To put it differently, the allomorph s has been chosen as basic and all the other allomorphs are derived from it by applying certain rules to this basic allomorph. The realization of the plural morpheme is as follows:
10

F/V Rule: Change the last f of a root to v is the root is of the class leaf, loaf, etc.

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(8)
PLURAL

-en with class A (ox, etc.) - with class B (deer, etc.) -s plus F/V Rule with class C (leaf, etc.) Ablaut with class D (foot, etc) -s elsewhere

It should be pointed out that these plurals cannot be predicted in any way from their corresponding singular forms and there is no semantic mnemonic to help the speaker/learner decide which ones apply to which. Even in the case of so-called regular plurals, contrary to what traditional grammars argue, the plural is not fully predictable from the singular form. There is nothing in the form or meaning of a noun with regular plural that will enable the user to infer that its plural form ends in the suffix s. We suggest that the s allomorph should be seen as regular or basic only in so far as this allomorph occurs with by far the largest class of nouns (a class which is in fact so large as never to be enumerated exhaustively, whereas other classes could be) and represents the first choice in the early stages of language acquisition. It is also the suffix that people use when they have not learnt the special lists of nouns which take the other allomorphs, as in the childrens speech form foots, rather than feet. To the classes of nouns mentioned above we can add the following classes of foreign plurals: Singular f) cactus alumnus g) addendum bacterium symposium h) analysis thesis axis diagnosis Plural cacti alumni addenda bacteria symposia analyses theses axes diagnoses Plural allomorph -i -a

-es

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The sets under (f) and (g) include Latin forms while the last group is Greek in origin. Thus the set of plural allomorphs in (7) can be supplemented with the following endings: -i, -a, -es.

3.2.1. The pronunciation of the plural allomorph s

The inflectional suffix s is phonologically realized as (/z/, /z/, /s/) depending on the final sound of the stem: The pronunciation /z/ occurs after stems ending in fricatives and affricates (9) /s/ horse ~ horses /h:sz/ /z/ size ~ sizes /sazz/ // rush ~ rushes /rz/ / / mirage ~ mirages /'mr:z/ /t/ church ~ churches /t:tz/ /d / language ~ languages /'lgwdz/ The pronunciation /z/ occurs after stems ending in vowels and voiced consonants other than /z/, / /, /d /, and /s/ (10) bud ~buds /b/ day ~ days /dez/ dream ~dreams /dri:mz/ leg ~legs /legz/ The inflection s is phonologically realized as /s/ if the stem ends in vowels and voiceless consonants other than /s/, //, /t/. (11) week ~ weeks /wi:ks/ cap ~ caps /kps/

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pet ~pets /pets/

3.2.2. The spelling of the plural allomorph -s

The plural inflection s is spelt s after most nouns including nouns ending in silent e. However, there are several exceptions to this rule. (a) Addition of e: The ending is es with nouns ending in: (12) -ch: porch ~ porches; church ~ churches; speech ~speeches -tch: match ~matches -s gas ~ gases; -ss: glass ~glasses -sh: bush ~bushes -z: buzz ~ buzzes -x: box ~ boxes (b) Treatment of y With nouns ending in a vowel letter followed by -y, -y remains unchanged and the plural ending is ys: (13) boy ~boys day ~ days valley ~ valleys The same rule applies to proper names such as two Germanys and to such compounds as stand-bys, lay-bys, drys (prohibitionists). With nouns ending in a consonant letter followed by -y, -y is replaced by ie before the plural suffix s: (14) country ~ countries lady ~ ladies 48

opportunity ~ opportunities spy ~ spies (c) Doubling of the final consonant occurs in a few nouns: (15) fez fezzes quiz - quizzes bus busses (but also: bus ~ buses) Doubling also occurs in some abbreviations: (16) p pp (pages) l ll (lines) MsMss (manuscripts) (d) The plural of numbers and abbreviations is formed by adding s (traditional) or only s (a more recent trend): (17) to count by 10s / 10s to know your ABCs / ABCs in the 1930s or 1930s two MPs / MPs three PhDs / PhDs The variant without apostrophe is on the increase. (e) The plural of letters, symbols and words used as examples is formed by adding s: (18) Cross your ts and dot your is. There are too many ands in this sentence There were three large Xs on the map The border consisted of a series of s 49

The apostrophe is not added to a number that is written out. (19) The gymnast scored three tens in the European competition. Nouns ending in o require special attention since the regular plural suffix of such nouns has two spellings os and oes. In the following cases the spelling is os: (a) after a vowel: bamboos, embryos, radios, kangaroos, zoos (b) in proper names: Filipinos, Neros, Romeos (c) in abbreviations: kilos, photos, pros (professionals) In other cases there is considerable vacillation between os and -oes: archipelago archipelagos archipelagoes buffalo buffalos buffaloes cargo cargos cargoes commando commandos commandoes flamingo flamingos flamingoes fresco frescos frescoes ghetto ghettos ghettoes innuendo innuendos innuendoes manifesto manifestos (manifestoes) memento mementos mementoes mosquito mosquitos mosquitoes motto mottos mottoes stiletto stilettos stilettoes tornado tornados tornadoes volcano- volcanos volcanoes However, the following nouns ending in o have plurals ending in oes: domino dominoes echo echoes embargo embargoes mango mangoes negro negroes potato potatoes tomato tomatoes 50

torpedo torpedoes veto vetoes

3.3. Classes of sortals (i.e. count(able) nouns) 3.3.1. Plural by voicing

With some nouns the final consonant changes between the singular and the plural. More specifically, several singular nouns ending in the voiceless11 fricative consonants /f/ and // replace these consonants with their voiced counterparts /v/ and // respectively when they occur in the plural. This phenomenon is known as voicing12 or consonant mutation. Of the two changes, the former is reflected in spelling, the latter not: knife knives /naif/ - /naivz/ mouth mouths /mau/ - /mauz/ This voicing alternation found in plural formation is losing ground in Modern English, and of the alternations involving voicing speakers generally retain only the nouns observing the F/V Rule, which is supported by spelling as well. The rule might be stated as follows: F/V Rule: Change the last f of a root to v if the root is of the class leaf, loaf, etc.

11

Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless (unvoiced) or voiced. At the articulatory level, a voiced sound is one in which the vocal cords vibrate, and a voiceless sound is one in which they do not. Voicing is the difference between the pairs of sounds that are associated with the English letters s and z. The two sounds are symbolically written /s/ and /z/ to distinguish them from the English letters, which have several possible pronunciations depending on context. If one places the fingers on the voice box (i.e. the location of the Adams apple in the upper throat), one can feel a vibration when one pronounces /zzzz/, but not when one pronounces /ssss/. 12 Voicing is a relic of Old English, where each vowel was pronounced. Unvoiced consonants between voiced vowels were coloured with voicing. As the language became more analytic and less inflectional, final vowels/syllables stopped being pronounced. For example, the present day English noun knives is a one-syllable word instead of a two-syllable word, with the vowel e not being pronounced.

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The following derivation in (20) shows the steps from the input to the output: (20) Word Structure Rule Lexical insertion F/V Rule Final Output Noun -Plural leaf -s leave -s leave -s

The following list includes nouns which are subject to the F/V rule or voicing when they are pluralized. Note that with these nouns voicing is also reflected in spelling: Singular calf elf half leaf life loaf knife thief self shelf wife wolf Plural calves elves halves leaves lives loaves knives thieves selves shelves wives wolves

The painting term still life has a regular plural still lifes, as shown in the following examples in (21a): (21a) The apparent realism of much Dutch art can be deceptive: many floral still lifes, for instance, show combinations of flowers that do not bloom at the same time of year. Czannes still-lifes, in their simplicity and delicate tonal harmony, are a typical work and thus ideal for an understanding of his art. The compound still life painting is another option: (21b) 52

Still life paintings often adorn the walls of ancient Egyptian tombs. With some nouns such as dwarf, handkerchief, hoof, scarf the plural can involve voicing or be regular (-fs). The F/V Rule does not apply to such nouns as cloth, death, faith, moth, puffs, cough, cliff, chief, waif and fife. With these nouns only the regular plural is found. Consider the examples in (22): (22) The dark moths appeared in London by 1897. Cloths can be one of the top causes of cross-contamination in the kitchen. The tensions are growing between members of different faiths. Authorities counted 50 traffic deaths over the holiday weekend. Breaths of flame and puffs of smoke leaping from the surrounding hillsides. Disease can be spread by coughs. It has bushy cliffs on both sides that lean like hairy ghosts over the unknown waters. Efforts to reorganize and liberalize the army alienated other military chiefs. She loved cats, and would take any waifs and strays into her home. This study is by no means a last word in the development of fifes.

3.3.2. Plural by Ablaut

The following seven nouns form their plural by Ablaut13 (or vowel change): foot feet (also, forefoot forefeet) louse lice mouse mice
13

The term ablaut designates vowel variation (as in English sing, sang, sung, song) caused by former differences in syllabic accent. In a prehistoric period the corresponding inflected forms of the language (known through internal reconstruction) had differences in accent rather than in vowel. Phonological change resulted in alteration of syllable structure and in vowel gradation (The Columbia Encyclopedia, New York: Columbia University Press,2007)

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goose geese man men tooth teeth woman women Like the F/V Rule, the Ablaut rule is restricted to a small subset of nouns. Plural by Ablaut is accounted for on historical grounds as well. It should also be noted that compounds of man and woman change to men and women respectively, as in: alderman aldermen fireman fireman postman postmen Norseman Norsemen horsewoman horsewomen charwoman charwomen Certain words ending in man are not (or are not regarded as) compounds of man. German, Norman, Roman form their plural according to the general rule by adding the plural suffix s: Germans, Normans, Romans. When the noun mouse refers to the computer peripheral device its plural is generally regular: mouses (23) The best known such mouses are Microsofts current optical models. Although Principles of English Usage in the Digital Age suggests the plural should normally be mouses since mice is too suggestive of furry little creatures, nevertheless it points out that both terms are common. (24) Mice first broke onto the public stage with the introduction of the Apple Macintosh in 1984, and since then they have helped to completely redefine the way we use computers. However, The Microsoft(R) Manual of Style for Technical Publications cautions against the use of the plural form mice and suggests mouse devices. 54

When the noun foot is used to denote measurement the plural form can be either feet or foot (i.e. unmarked for the plural): (25) Shes described as five foot three, with blonde permed hair, slim build and green eyes. She was tall, too, inches taller than Juliet, who was a petite five feet three inches. I received 300 prize money and a three foot tall trophy.

3.3. The en plural

Other survivals from Old English take the plural suffix en: child children ox oxen brother brethren Note that in child/children the plural is marked not only by the plural suffix en but also by ablaut. The plural form brethren is nowadays used in religious contexts to address or talk about the members of an organization or group, especially a religious group. (26) But among his brethren this benefactor would be sadly missed. But in the strict sense of the word, and in the sense fellow-men or soldiers who have fought together in a war, the plural is bothers: (27) Brothers! Fellow-workers! A war is always a war between brothers.

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3.3.4. Zero plural

The zero allomorph of PLURAL in English also triggers a minor rule for some nouns. For nouns like deer and sheep, the zero allomorph occurs, but since these nouns do not appear in the list of nouns which undergo Ablaut, their plural form is identical with the singular form (i.e. Sg = Pl). Thus nouns with zero plural have the same spoken and written form in both singular and plural. However, they should not be confused with uncountable which do not change their form but are either singular (This music is too loud) or plural (All the cattle are grazing in the field). Zero plural nouns are countable and thus take both singular and plural verb agreement. They also take all the articles and quantifiers (numerals included) that are characteristic of genuine countable nouns. The plural use of these nouns is marked on the verb, determiners and anaphoric pronominal substitutes which take plural form. Their irregular behaviour can be accounted for in terms of their diachronic evolution (Baciu 2004b). In Old English nouns had several declensions according to gender distinctions. Nouns such as deer, sheep, swine, which in Modern English have zero plural, belonged to the class of Old English neuter nouns, which in the nominative and accusative had the same form in the plural as in the singular (Poutsma 1926:122). Consider the examples below: (28)

This sheep looks small. All those sheep are mine. A deer is a large wild animal with horns that eats grass and leaves. We still have many deer, very little water and not many open spaces.

The following classes of nouns are marked by the zero allomorph when they are pluralized:

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A. Nouns denoting some animals Nouns denoting wild animals, wild fowl and fish often have zero plural, i.e. the unmarked singular form is used for both singular and plural contexts. Examples of such nouns include: cod, deer, fish, grouse, moose, reindeer, bison, halibut mullet, salmon, mullet, mackerel, tuna, snipe, sheep, i.e. names of animals generally found in flocks (Schibsbye 1973:102). These nouns are countable and have count properties, except for the lack of the plural marker on the noun. Jespersen (1911: 51) points out that in (expressions like) five snipe or a few antelope we have neither a collective word or a singular, but a real (individualizing) plural though the form be identical with the singular. These nouns tend to be used when reference is made to animals in mass as food or game. (29) fish: What advantage did Grimsby have over Hull for the distribution of fresh fish? Ronny caught three huge fish this afternoon. The Arundell Arms Hotel in Devon runs a variety of courses in wet and dry fly fishing for salmon and trout. Salmon, tuna, sardines, and kippers are good sources of polyunsaturated fat.

wild animals: Thousands of starving reindeer, too weak to make the crossing, are being carried across in landing craft. On the opposite shore I saw two large gray black moose. So we decide to ride up to Graveyard Lake to see about getting some ducks, or maybe a moose.

wildfowl: Wildfowl are numerous in winter with thousands of teal as well as widgeon, pintail and shoveler. In cases of variation, i.e. with nouns having two plural forms, the zero plural is more common to denote hunting quarries as in (30) or to denote a group of specimens from a single species as in (31): (30)

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We caught only a few fish (31) The North Atlantic stock of Gadus morhua is estimated to contain several million fish The plural form marked by the inflection s, on the other hand, is used to denote different individuals, or species: (32)

My aquarium contains three different fishes: guppies, platies, and swordtails. The marine fishes reach their greatest diversity in the coral reef ecosystems. The following nouns consistently take zero plurals include: cod, deer, grouse, sheep, plaice, and salmon. (33)

A deer makes tracks in the snow. Several deer/sheep are grazing in the distance. It used to be said that any salmon running up the Dee made a one-way journey. Jim has since caught six more salmon in Ayrshire rivers on the same fly. The following nouns may have both zero plural or regular plural: crab, carp, herring, trout, duck, etc. In some contexts, as the examples below show, the unmarked form is not a zero plural but a mass/uncountable term. In other contexts these nouns have two plural forms (zero plural and regular plural) which are not in free variation, however. The regular plural forms trouts, carps, herrings, are used to denote the variety of the kind.

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(34) Herrings have no adipose fin, and all the fins have soft rays. The majority of the herrings are marine pelagic species but some of them occasionally venture into rivers and a few species are exclusively found in freshwater [CT the regular plural denotes different species] A few dozen herring here or there; nobody troubled: every child went home with a few dozen herring on a string. [CT the zero plural denotes quarries] (35) The loch is full of wild brown trout; where a basket of thirty trout is the rule, rather than the exception. [CT zero plural] In the nature, trouts are found in the sea as well as in freshwater. [CT the regular plural makes reference to different species] Providing fresh trout for dinner was rarely a problem. [MT the flesh of this fish] (36) Instantly the water becomes a maelstrom, as huge grey carp or catfish lunge for the food. [CT zero plural] I used to be able to summon a carp from the pond. [CT zero plural] There were carp in there and we saw them. [CT zero plural] There are many species of heavy-bodied cyprinid fishes collectively known as Asian carps. [CT the regular plural denotes various species/kinds] It is sensible to give the carp a balanced diet for we want the carp to do well on our baits. [CT zero plural] (37) (i)The majority of our wild duck are mallard although we are able to supply widgeon and teal from time to time. [CT the zero plural denotes wild duck; mallard and widgeon refer to two species of wild duck]

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(ii) But tiresome authority deems that tickling a trout or two or felling the odd wild duck for the supper table is illegal. [CT the zero plural denotes hunting quarries] (iii) Most commercial ducks now come from farms in Northern California or the Midwest states, especially Indiana. [CT the regular plural makes reference to ducks raised on farms] (iv) A report had been received by his inspector that a discreet cull of the wild ducks on Hury Reservoir was under way. [CT regular plural] (v) In 1608 famed explorer Captain John Smith reported that great numbers of wild ducks abounded. [CT regular plural] Nouns denoting sea animals other than fish also take regular plural: crabs, lobsters, shrimps, prawns. (38) (i) In general, larger lobsters are sold into the fresh/live market where they command premium prices. [CT - regular plural] (ii) Personally, I would need a lobster or two. [CT regular plural] (iii) Like the flesh of other animals, lobster is loaded with excessive protein and cholesterol. [MT the flesh of a lobster, which is eaten] (39) (i) In the confusion, many crabs lose their foothold, tumble into the water and are swept away. [CT - a sea animal with a hard shell] (ii) From Alaska Red King Crab to Snow Crab and everything in between, weve got you covered. [CT zero plural; different species] (iii) We pride ourselves in offering only the finest in fresh crab and seafood, delivered straight from the dock to your door. [MT - the flesh of this animal that can be cooked and eaten] As far as the noun shrimp is concerned, the zero plural and the regular plural may be used interchangeably. On the other hand, the unmarked (singular) form may be recategorized as a mass (i.e. uncountable) noun.

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(40) (i) Brine shrimp, which are eaten by birds and ducks, hatch in the ponds. [CT zero plural] (ii) In some fish, shrimp, and reptiles, gender is determined by the temperature at which the egg is incubated. [CT zero plural] (iii) The grill had mutton chops and mash; the buffet ran things like smoked salmon, potted shrimps and corned ox tongue. [CT regular plural] (iv) Add shrimp, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. [MT] B. Nationality names ending in ese: Nationality names ending in ese such as Ceylonese, Lebanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Vietnamese when preceded by a numeral have specific reference, whereas when accompanied by the definite article they have generic reference. (41) a Chinese/ two Chinese The Chinese are believed to have invented gunpowder. C. Some quantifying nouns Quantifying nouns such as hundred, thousand, million, brace, dozen, gross, head, score, yoke when premodified by cardinal numerals or other indication of number have zero plural. However, when these nouns are postmodified by the of- construction their plural form is marked by the plural inflection s. Consider the following examples: (42) two dozen people several hundred books fifty thousand pounds vs. dozens of people vs. hundreds of books vs. thousands of pounds

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many thousand insects five million people a few billion stars three score years

vs. thousands of insects vs. millions of people vs. billion of stars vs. scores of victims

The nouns pound, stone and foot often take a zero plural inflection, when followed by a smaller unit: (43) The bill came to four pound ten. She used to weight nine stone (or stones) but she has gone down to eight stone three. His brother is six foot three. His brother is six foot (or feet) tall. Moreover nouns denoting measure or quantity have zero plural when they are premodifiers in noun phrases: (44) a five-pound note a ten-dollar bill a twelve-inch ruler a six-mile walk a five-second pause a ten-minute conversation a two-hour exam a sixty-acre farm D. Nouns ending in (e)s Like the nouns in the previous three classes, these nouns have all the syntactic properties characteristic of genuine countable nouns. They cooccur with cardinals and plural anaphoric pronouns. Verb agreement is either in the singular or in the plural. Similarly, they evince only one notable exception to the morpho-syntactic behaviour of countable nouns: their plural form is identical with the singular form. This subclass

62

includes such nouns as barracks, chassis, crossroads, gallows, headquarters, means, mews, patois, prcis, works, series, species, etc. (45) (i) barracks Lord Apsley was nearly four times over the legal limit when he arrived for a function at an army barracks. He had an idea there had been a car bomb at another barracks. New barracks are rising where dilapidated Navy quarters had been. He ordered two barracks torn down and a fountain constructed on the cement base of a latrine. (ii) chassis Its chassis offers terrific handling balance, great traction matched to positive brakes and accurate steering. The company is currently designing a new chassis to provide full mechanical functionality, expecting it to ship in June. Chassis are available as spare parts, and include all of the components required for operation except the processor modules. (iii) crossroads Donna accelerated, seeing a crossroads ahead. The tunnel to the right turned left after a short distance, while the tunnel to the left led to a crossroads. At each crossroads the stone fountains with their precious supply of water were guarded by men-at-arms. (iv) gallows Next a policeman puppet arrived carrying a gallows. The arrangement was later modified, and gallows were erected outside, in the hanging corner. (v) headquarters

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Budapest Week will move over the river to the red-light district in Budapest, where Dunas headquarters are situated. The army headquarters is on the other side of the square, in a former colonial mansion. Another 4 percent are involved in energy and water industries, and we have a regional headquarters of the electricity board. Their headquarters is rich in symbolism. (vi) mews Simon Templar had lived in a mews. We knew the rents were going up in Tottenham mews and we couldnt find any good, affordable space in town. (vii) means E-mail has become an increasingly important means of business communication. The most effective means of improving the nations economy are education and training. The only means of communication was sign language. Do you have any means of identification? He had considered every means of transport, air-routes and sea-routes, and found them wanting. Here, camels were simply a means of transport. (viii) works Batchelor constructed a small cement works which continued to operate until 1931. The government of Belarus plans to invite a tender for construction of two new cement works with the participation of foreign investors in October-November 2007. Most scholars regarded these waterworks as man-made, but the techniques of underground orientation and ventilation employed by the builders, as well as the numerous anomalies and ostensible mistakes in design, mystified investigators. A few nouns ending in es, such as series or species, have the same form in the singular and in the plural. Although historically foreign, these zero plurals are not probably felt to be foreign in the same way as, for instance analysis analyses or basis bases. 64

(46) (i) series The police are investigating a series of attacks in the area. A new TV series called The Hamilton Dynasty will be starting next autumn. Reuters reports that Will and Jada Pinkett are to be the proud parents of two comedy series that will air on CW and ABC respectively. The first two series of United States adhesive stamps were issued unperforated. The UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Asuncion collaborated with the National Post Service of Paraguay in December 2007 in the release of a series of stamps commemorating the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. (ii) species Seven species of birds of prey have been observed. Scientists have discovered a new species of Eucalyptus tree.

3.3.5. Foreign plurals

Countable nouns with irregular plurals also include foreign plurals. Some nouns borrowed from Latin and Greek keep their foreign plural or there may be alternation with regular forms. Foreign plural generally occurs in technical usage, while the corresponding regular plural is the most natural in everyday language: Latin nouns ending in us Singular alumnus locus Foreign plural alumni loci Regular plural -

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cactus fungus corpus

cacti fungi corpora

cactuses funguses corpuses

Latin nouns ending in a Singular antenna formula larva Foreign plural antennae14 formulae16 larvae Regular plural antennas15 formulas17 -

The following however have regular plural: diploma, drama, encyclopaedia, idea, era, sofa, umbrella, villa. Latin nouns in um Singular aquarium curriculum medium bacterium stratum Foreign plural aquaria curricula media bacteria strata Regular plural aquariums mediums -

The following are regular: album, asylum, museum. Latin nouns in ex/-ix Singular index appendix
14 15

Foreign plural indices18 appendices20

Regular plural indexes19 appendixes21

The irregular foreign plural antennae occurs in biology. The regular plural antennas occurs in everyday language and in electronics. 16 The irregular plural is used in mathematics. 17 The regular plural occurs in everyday use of language. 18 a standard by which the level of something can be judged or measured 19 an alphabetical list of names, subjects etc at the back of a book, with the numbers of the pages where they can be found; a database containing information, usually arranged in alphabetical order and used especially in a library 20 a part at the end of a book containing additional information 21 (an anatomical term) a small organ near your bowel, which has little or no use

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matrix Greek nouns in is Singular analysis axis basis crisis diagnosis ellipsis hypothesis oasis parenthesis thesis Greek nouns in on Singular criterion phenomenon

matrices

matrixes22

Foreign plural analyses axes bases crises diagnoses ellipses hypotheses oases parentheses theses

Foreign plural criteria phenomena

The following nouns of Greek origin have regular plural: demon, electron, neutron, proton. (47) Quarks unite to form protons, neutrons and electrons, which in turn unite to form atoms. Astrology was condemned as the doctrine of demons. French nouns in eau Singular plateau
22

Foreign plural plateaux

a technical term

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bureau tableau Italian nouns in o Singular virtuoso libretto solo tempo

bureaux tableaux

Foreign plural virtuosi libretti soli tempi

Regular plural virtuosos librettos solos tempos

Although a plural form in the language of origin, confetti takes the verb in the singular: (48) The simplest confetti is simply shredded paper. Hebrew nouns with im plurals Singular cherub seraph kibbutz Foreign plural cherubim seraphim kibbutzim Regular plural cherubs seraphs -

3.3.6. Collective nouns

Foreign learners and native speakers of English alike are faced with the problem of how to treat collective nouns (e.g. army, audience, board, class, committee, company, crew, crowd, family, federation, government, group, staff, team, etc.), since both singular and plural concord are possible. Semantically, these nouns designate sets of individual concepts (Baciu 2004b:43). Formally, most collective nouns pass all the tests of countability: they allow countable quantifiers and determiners, and in the sense of body/group vs. several

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bodies/groups, they allow the plural marker s and thus plural agreement and plural anaphoric pronouns: (49) A coalition government is now going be established. Governments in all countries are trying to control the financial crisis. It has been often argued that a verb in the singular is used when the group is thought of as a unit whereas a verb in the plural is used when the speaker or writer focuses on the individual members that make up the group (Poutsma 1914:283; Quirk et al 1985:316). Thus a distinction is drawn between singular, which is triggered by grammatical concord, and plural, which is motivated by notional concord. The former involves agreement with the syntactic form of the subject, whereas the latter involves agreement with its meaning. When collective nouns designate the individual members of the set they acquire a distributive interpretation and agree with the verb in the plural. When they are used to designate the whole set as a body or group, they acquire a collective interpretation and agree with the verb in the singular. The singular/plural distinction is also triggered in connection with the pronominal substitutes used to refer to collective nouns. Thus in (50a) and (51a) reference is made to the committee as a unit whereas in (50b) and (51b) the collective is viewed as a number of separate individuals. (50) (a) The committee has decided that it will postpone its decision (collective reading) (b) The committee have decided that they will postpone their decision (distributive reading) (51) (a) Her family has disgraced itself (collective reading) (b) The family still resolve to hold up their heads (distributive reading) On the collective reading the predicate is true of the entire group en masse. This is the case in the examples in (50a) and (51a) above. The semantic feature of distributivity (which amounts to [- collective]) 69

triggers plural agreement with the verb and plural determiners and anaphoric pronouns. On the distributive reading the sentences above read as: the predicate is true of each member (each person), of the set (Baciu 2004b:43). This applies to examples in (50b) and (51b) above. Agreement is also displayed in relative pronouns. There is great consistency in the use of which + singular verb (i.e. on the collective interpretation) and who + plural verb (on the distributive interpretation). That is also consistently used with singular verbs. Jacobsson (1970:355) and Zandvoort (1975:162) argue that which is used when the group is in focus and who when the individuals making up the group are in focus. Another important factor influencing agreement in number between collective nouns and verbs was adduced by Strang (1969). Collective nouns preceded by determiners and numerals associated with singular forms (e.g. a, one, every, each, this and that) are generally used with singular verbs (Strang 1969:107). Consider the following examples: (52) Not that every married couple is happy [....] (FLOB B07) 23 The deal is another example of a company that stubs its toe [....] (Frown A36) They kept the pace fast with many digressions, a sensible tactic to keep the attention of an audience who has not been interested enough in cooking to try it before. (FLOB C04) Example (53) in which a plural verb is used after a singular determiner seems, at first sight, to be an exception: (53) This Government are dedicated to a sustainable, economic recovery based on stable, low inflation. (FLOB H15) However, as Hundt (1998:88) points out, (53) is not an example of notional concord which emphasizes the individual members who make up the government. Instead, it appears that agreement with the verb in the plural is the norm with the noun government in British officialese
23

Brown stands for the Brown corpus and LOB for the Lancaster-Oslo/Bergen corpus. LOB and Brown contain, respectively, BrE and AmE texts sampled in 1961.FLOB and Frown stand for Freiburg updates of LOB and Brown respectively. The sampling year for FLOB is 1991 and for Frown 1992.

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(see also Fries 1981). This usage stands in marked contrast to AmE officialese which uses a singular concord with collective nouns. At this point we should mention another peculiarity of the usage of the noun government in BrE. The singular is sometimes used with government in official documents in BrE. This is a reflection of the tendency that plural concord is used with the British government and singular concord with foreign governments, as argued by Bauer (1994:64). Consider (54) below: (54) (.....) the Government of Denmark is applying the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in respect of Greenland. (LOB H14) Overall, pronouns used after collective nouns are more likely to yield plural marking than verbs (Nixon 1979:123; Hundt 1998:84-86; Levin 2001:91). One of the main reasons for this is that verbs are more likely to show close proximity to the collective noun, as shown in example (55), whereas pronouns are more likely to occur at a greater distance. (55) No modern government has won four consecutive elections. The connection between the pronoun and its antecedent is thus weaker than the connection between the subject and the verb (Levin 1999). Pronominal concord may even run across sentence boundaries. As Wales (1996:163) points out, plural personal pronouns are particularly frequent across clause and sentence boundaries. Consider the example in (56). (56) The group meets once a week in the Boliou Student Workshop. They are assisted and advised by members of the Art Department (Brown H28) Nixon (1972) argues that the likelihood for notional concord increases with the distance from the antecedent. Example (57) shows

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that a long distance between a node word and concord mark increases the likelihood of plural agreement24. (57) The British Travel Association, which does excellent work in taking care of all foreigners who want to have a good time here and study what is pompously called The British Way of Life, have a hard time on their hands. (LOB B05) Examples (58) and (59) are exceptional because who is followed by singular concord marking. (58) They were anxious to entertain the clinic staff who mostly its free time elsewhere [....] (LOB K23) (59) [.....] it is not surprising that the crowd of reports who greeted him upon his arrival in New York on 8 November 1911, was less concerned with stories of his collapse in Berlin [....] (FLOB G21) Although such shifts as those in (58) and (59) can be found in both BrE and AmE, this area needs further investigation before we can determine with any certainty whether this a case of ongoing linguistic change or random variation. The examples from (56) to (59) indicate a divergence between verbal and pronominal concord and illustrate what has been referred to as mixed concord or discord, i.e. the combination of a singular verb and a plural pronoun. Discord typically occurs where there is considerable distance between co-referent noun phrases; discord is generally motivated by notional considerations, i.e. tendency towards agreement with the meaning, rather than the form, of the subject noun phrase (Biber et al. 1999:192). Mixed concord or discord shows a fairly
24

These shifts in concord involving singular forms followed by plural ones can be accounted for in terms of the primacy semantic memory over syntactic-lexical memory. It has been shown that the meaning of a sentence is more easily remembered than the form, both in long-term memory (Begg and Wickelgren 1974) and in short-term memory (Begg 1971).

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complex interaction of regional, stylistic and inter-linguistic variation. The following tendencies have been identified: Mixed concord is slightly more common in AmE than in BrE, AusE and NZE. Mixed concord is more often used in informal and spoken language than in formal, written language (cf. Levin 2001, Biber et al. 1999) Some collective nouns are more likely to yield mixed concord than others (e.g. family and team vs. government and committee).

This last aspect brings us to the lexico-grammatical aspect of linguistic variation: the preference for certain concord patterns is linked to individual collective nouns. Biber et al. (1999: 188) point out that most collective nouns prefer singular concord, although a few collective nouns commonly take plural concord. Nouns like audience, board, committee, government, jury and public favour the singular; staff is given as a noun that prefers plural concord. Nouns that show variation in taking both singular and plural concord are crew and family. It is to this last group of collective nouns that the regional differences between AmE and BrE apply. However, the group of truly variable collective nouns is considerably larger. Nixon (1979:120) argues that for the following collective nouns, which he refers to as corporate nouns, all types of singular, plural and mixed concord were recorded:25 army, association, audience, board, cast, clan, class, club, college, commission, committee, company, corporation, council, couple, crew, crowd, department, family, federation, gang, generation, government, group, institute, majority, minority, ministry, minority, opposition, party, population, staff, team, and university With respect to regional variation, various authors (Quirk et al. 1985:16-17; Biber et al. 1999: 188; Trudgill and Hannah 2002: 70) have found that singular concord is most frequently used in AmE; plural concord, on the other hand, is used most frequently in BrE. In contrast, varieties like AusE and NZE26 take an intermediate position (Hundt
25

Nixon (1972:120) argues that the possibility of plural verbal concord exists only with those words denoting a collection of living individuals. This observation is illustrated by the following two sentences: The fleet is in the harbour (i.e. a number of ships) vs. The fleet are in town (i.e. a number of sailors). 26 AusE and NZE stand for Australian English and New Zealand English respectively.

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1998: 83; Levin 2001:60-70). As Depraetere (2003:112-13) points out, From a sociolinguistic point of view, the preference for the singular may reflect the pecking order among the different varieties of English: American English [......] is beginning to set the norm for British English. With respect to stylistic variation, the general tendency in all varieties of English is that singular concord is preferred in more formal styles (with the exception of BrE officialese; cf. Fries 1981 and Hundt 1998), whereas plural concord is on the increase in more informal styles, such as sports reportage or informal conversation (Levin 2001). To conclude, it should be pointed out that in present-day AmE and BrE there seems to be a tendency towards a more frequent use of singular forms. Marckwardt (1985) claims that AmE has retained the older practice of using plural concord and that in the 1950s there were no indications of change. Evidence from the second half of the twentieth century, however, shows that AmE is currently leading world English in a change towards a more frequent use of singular concord. Although British English does favour singular forms, it has not been influenced by American English27. The development within British English must have taken place independently, because singular forms were increasingly used in British English in the 1930s, a time when influence from American English through mass media and increased global mobility was less widespread than it is today (Bauer 1994: 61-66). Data from the eighteenth and nineteenth century suggest that the singular has always been a latent option in both British and American English (Hundt forthcoming).

3.3.7. Quasi-count nouns

The term quasi-count nouns applies to a class of uninflected plural nouns only, i.e. nouns which are morphologically unmarked for plural. This subclass includes nouns such as cattle, folk, livestock, poultry, police, people, vermin, etc28. Like true collectives and plurals, they
27

Diachronically, AmE is more advanced in the use of singular concord than BrE (Hundt 1998:88-89, 2006, Levin 2001) at the end of the twentieth century. 28 Quirk et al (1985) include these nouns in the class of aggregate nouns which they define as nouns denoting entities that comprise or are viewed as comprising an indefinite number of parts. The class of aggregate nouns, which also includes such nouns marked for plural as arms, communications, data, media, outskirts, remains, troops, is a class of invariable nouns in the plural.

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display both distributive and collective readings. Unlike true collective nouns, however, they agree with plural only. (60) Police have surrounded the courthouse. No one is going anywhere until the cattle move. Several police were injured during the rioting. These nouns lack the singular plural contrast, as the examples in (61) and (62) illustrate: (61) These cattle belong to John vs. *This cattle belongs to John. Another peculiarity of these nouns is that they do not occur with low numerals (Crainiceanu 2007). Thus, distinct lexical items must be used whenever individuation takes place: (62) *four police vs. four policemen/police officers *five cattle vs. five cows However, they generally co-occur with high numerals: (63) two hundred police/cattle/poultry On the other hand, folk and people can be used with low numerals: these six/five/two city folk/people. Remark When the noun people denotes the people who belong to a particular country, race, or area, it displays a regular count behaviour:

75

(64) .the Basques, a people of north western Spain The peoples of Europe are confident about the future. Ours is a great people.

4. Non-sortal terms Mass nouns 4.1. The semantic and morphosyntactic properties of nonsortals (i.e. mass nouns)
The most adequate way of highlighting the semantic and syntactic properties of non-sortals (i.e. mass terms) is by setting up a comparison with sortal terms (i.e. count terms). Their major distinctive characteristic, namely individuation, will provide the most adequate basis for such a comparison as well as for the formulation of their semantic and syntactic characteristics. Because sortals (i.e. count nouns) specify bounding, they possess in-built modes of dividing their reference29 (so that we can determine when one instance ends and another begins and therefore distinguish between one dog, another dog, etc) which results in the application of number to such terms. Non-sortals (i.e. mass nouns), on the other hand, do not divide their reference. Being unbounded, nonsortals are subdivisible, additive or cumulative in reference30. Philosophers of language have argued that the purpose of sortal designation is to apply number in a definite way to them (Pelletier 1979). Quine (1960:91) in his account of mass nouns has pointed out that [...] so called mass terms like water footwear [...] have the semantic property of referring cumulatively: any sum of parts which are water is water [...] Semantically they are like singular terms in not dividing their reference, but syntactically they do not go along with singular terms which purport to name a unique object each. In other words, as far as their semantic behaviour is concerned, non-sortals (i.e. mass terms) should be opposed not only to sortals, but also to singular terms (i.e. nouns with unique reference such as mama, London, the book on the
29

Their ability to divide reference corresponds to Langackers (2008) notion of replicabilty in cognitive grammar. 30 These features correspond to contractibility and expanisibility in Langackers (2008) terms.

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table). The opposition between mass terms and singular terms centres round their purport to name or not a unique object: singular terms purport to name unique objects while mass terms do not. Mass terms also qualify as names but they designate a different type of entity, namely kinds. The syntactic properties of mass terms reflect their semantic behaviour. We shall repeat them here for convenience: mass nouns trigger singular agreement with the verb and the singular anaphoric pronoun it they combine with specific quantifiers, also called amassives, such as much, little, which are used with both concrete and abstract mass nouns they cannot take the indefinite article (a)n or the cardinals mass noun are resistant to pluralisation (i.e. they are not marked for plural) in point of their morphological structure, morphologically complex nouns that contain in their structure the suffixes ness, - ity, - hood are, generally, mass nouns

The syntactic behaviour of mass nouns and that of count nouns can be brought out by a tabulation of grammatically comparable constructions: (65) the book is a book this book every book one book some book the water is water this water little water much water all water some water (some stressed) some water (some unstressed) It should be pointed out that mass nouns include both concrete and abstract nouns. The expression mass noun has clearer intuitive force in the context of concrete stuff. Concrete mass nouns, however, have a lot in common syntactically and semantically with non-concrete (i.e. abstract) nouns such as speed, decency, attention, etc. Thus the term mass nouns has been extended to cover both concrete and non-concrete the books are books these books few books many books all books two books some books some books

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nouns distinguished by the semantic and syntactic properties discussed above. Examples of concrete mass nouns include: silver, gold, water, wine, butter, milk, tea, coffee, cheese, powder, gas, sugar, flesh, meat, grass, etc. Whereas examples of abstract mass nouns include: leisure, progress, success, luck, tact, love, attention, nonsense, knowledge, vagueness, safety, constancy, decency, experience, danger, harm, etc.

4.2. Mass nouns and quantifiers

The syntactic restrictions imposed on mass terms as a consequence of their being be construed as unbounded (i.e. continuous and not inherently limited in space and/or time) and of their lack of built-in modes for dividing their reference, can be transgressed. Characteristic of typical mass nouns is a set of quantifiers which operate as partitioning expressions and individuate a certain portion of the intended stuff. When mass nouns are used with these quantifiers they are recategorized into count nouns. Some of these quantifiers can be used with both concrete and abstract mass nouns (see the examples in (66)); others are used with concrete mass nouns only (see the examples in (67)); still others collocate with abstract mass nouns only (see the examples in (68)). (66) a piece of an amount of a (little) scrap of gold butter iron coffee air meat ice sugar flour honesty regret consolation love wisdom kindness perfidy politeness justice cruelty

(67) a fall of snow a stack of hay a cake of soap a lump of sugar 78

a bar of chocolate a skein of wool a blade of grass a slice/rasher of bacon/ham a roll of toilet paper a cup of tea/milk/coffee/cocoa a reel of thread/wire/film a clod/lump of earth/clay a glass of wine/water/milk/beer a grain/sheaf of wheat/barley/corn (68) A flutter of excitement A pang of jealousy A stroke of luck An act of kindness/love/justice As already mentioned, mass nouns do not co-occur with the indefinite article a(n), with numerals and the plural marker. Whenever, they do, the indefinite article, the numerals and the plural marker have an individuating effect, and the respective mass nouns are recategorized as count nouns. Consider the following examples: (69) I had two coffees this morning Teas, coffees and cakes are available He had a beer for lunch. The examples in (69) are elliptical for two cups of coffee, cups of tea, cups of coffee, slices of cakes, a glass of/ a bottle of/ a can of beer, respectively. The definite article the does not occur with mass nouns. When it does, the mass noun is recategorized as a sortal and the whole noun phrase functions as singular term: a unique portion of stuff is individuated (Baciu 2004b). Contrast the examples in (70) and (71): (70) (a) Milk is healthy mass term (b) *Milk is on the table 79

(c) The milk is on the table singular term (71) (a) Gold is a precious metal mass term (b) *Gold was found in the next room (c) The gold was found in the next room singular term The DP in (70c) and (71c) is elliptical for the amount/quantity of milk/gold. Thus the mass noun is recategorized as count noun (i.e. a sortal). Ware (1979:23-24) argues that the definite article was said to be appropriate only to count nouns and not to mass nouns. This would give a certain unity to the articles (definite and indefinite), and it could perhaps explain some matters about individuation. On the other hand, it would appear to give all nouns a count occurrence. For any stuff on the table we can speak of the stuff on the table, whether it be sugar, water, dust or whatever. And we can always speak of the stuff here and there. The determiners this and that achieve the same individuating effect when they accompany mass terms. Just like in the case of the N, noun phrases including this/that and a mass noun qualify as sortals with unique reference, i.e. as singular terms. (72) (a) Butter is healthy mass term (b) This butter is stale singular term (73) (a) Gold is precious metal mass term (b) This gold was found in the next room singular term The individualizing quantifiers each, every, another have restricted co-occurrence conditions since they are characteristic of general terms (i.e. countable nouns) and therefore require criteria of distinctness and individuation. In contexts in which they occur with mass nouns an individualizing expression is assumed and we are dealing again with a case of recategorization from mass terms into count terms. (74)

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Each/every/another wine/tea was excellent (i.e. each/every/another kind of wine/tea, etc was excellent) All and some can be used with mass nouns; no criteria of division are required. The noun phrase is a mass term: (75) All water is blue. All attention is needed. Some water was blue. Some attention was needed. The predeterminers half, double, twice, three times, one third, one fifth require criteria of division into half, double, etc of the stuff described. Therefore they are used with countable nouns: half the apple, one third of the rabbit, etc. In these predeterminers are used with mass nouns some other article or quantifier must be present to operate the division into a certain portion of the stuff: (76) *Half water was cold. Half the water was cold. Half the amount of water was cold. The same applies to predeterminers double, three times, etc, which require the presence of an individuating modifier or article for the sentence to be well formed. Consider the examples in (77): (77) *Double wine was needed. *Three times wine was needed. Double the/this wine was needed. Double of the/this quantity of wine/strength/ attention/love was needed. The characteristic quantifiers for mass nouns are much and little. Many and few are used only with countable nous, as shown in (78): (78)

81

(a) Much butter was needed. Little attention was needed. (b) Many girls were there. Few books were there (c) *Much girls was needed. *Little books was needed. *Many butter was needed. *Few attention was needed. The quantifiers plenty of, a lot of, lots of are indefinite quantifiers and co-occur with both mass nouns and countable nouns: (79) Plenty of/a lot of/lots of/ butter/attention/books If one of these quantifiers is used with a countable noun in the singular, the entire noun phrase becomes a complex mass term, as illustrated in (80): (80) She showed a lot of foot. There is too much tooth about her. She is more of a woman now.

5. Recategorization of nouns 5.1 Recategorization of mass nouns as countable nouns

This section addresses the classes of mass nouns that undergo recategorization31 as countable nouns by means of pluralization and/or the use of the indefinite article a(n). By means of recategorization a noun that is usually treated as unbounded (mass) becomes bounded (count).
31

Various terms are used to describe this process: Lyons (1968:282) talks of secondary recategorization, while Quirk et al. (1985:248) uses reclassification.

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As we shall see in Section 5.3., the reverse is also possible. The process of recategorization has far-reaching implications for the count-mass distinction in syntax to the extent to which a very substantial part of the noun inventory in English can be used in count and mass contexts (Corbett 2000). A. The first class includes mass nouns which can be recategorized as count nouns when they occur in the plural and they mean kinds of X. Examples of such mass terms which undergo a shift from X (a kind-level individual) to kinds of X are listed below: (81) wine, tea, gas, food, fruit, meat, metal, steel, grass, coffee, butter, cheese, fashion, experience, etc. Compare the sentences32 from (82) to (88). (82) (i) Wine is healthy if you drink it in small quantities. [MT] (ii) Four wines were served at dinner. They were dry wines. [CT] (iii) Full-bodied, sweet or sparkling wines are usually drunk at a cooler temperature. [CT] (iv) This is an astonishingly fine wine with great concentration and wonderful flavours of black cherry, chocolate, black raspberry and herbs.
[CT]

(83) (i) The luncheon table in the little cottage was spread with cheese, olives, sardines and bread. [MT] (ii) Top with the cottage cheese, and sprinkle the mixed herbs on top.
[MT]

(iii) To make a fresh milk cheese at home is the simplest of processes.

[CT]

32

The examples included in this section, as well as in Section 5.3, and labelled as MT or illustrate the morpho-syntactic behaviour of mass terms (i.e. mass nouns) and count terms (i.e. count nouns) respectively.
CT

83

(iv) Swaledale is a traditional cheese of the same era as Wensleydale, which has been revived and is now selling well. [CT] (v) It wont be long before cheeses such as these become rarities. [CT] (vi) a selection of English cheeses [CT] (vii) It wont be long before cheeses such as these become rarities. [CT] (84) (i) The room smelt of stale sweat and strong coffee. [MT] (ii) Peter returned with fresh coffee and explained how to score and interpret the material. [MT] (iii) A variety of gourmet coffees are on sale. [CT] (85) (i) She enjoyed the feel of grass beneath her feet. [MT] (ii) All grasses need light to grow well. [CT] (86) (i) The gate is made of metal. [MT] (ii) They traded in gold and other precious metals. [CT] (iii) A large number of chemical reactions take place when trace metals move through the environment. [CT] (iv) Modem glass also tends to contain a greater range of other metals such as arsenic and zinc. [CT] (87) (i) Fur coats were considered to be the height of fashion and sophistication. [MT] (ii) Having conquered the world of fashion, she is now being courted by Steven Spielbergs DreamWorks film company. [MT] (iii) This years mens fashions are brighter and more casual than ever before. [CT] (iv) I always find it hard to keep up with the latest fashions. [CT] (88) (i) Id like two teas and a piece of chocolate cake, please. 84

(ii) We stopped for a cream tea on the way home (iii) They competed to see who could eat most in the hotel restaurant and gorged themselves on Cornish cream teas. (iv) It may be black or green tea flavoured with jasmine flowers, is very fragrant and is always drunk without milk. The noun wine in (82i) is a mass noun, naming thus a kind-level individual in Carlsons terms. Semantically it does not divide its reference; instead its reference is cumulative and subdivisible: any sum of parts which are wine is wine. These semantic properties are reflected in the syntactic behaviour: it triggers singular agreement with the verb and singular anaphoric pronouns. This analysis applies to the nouns cheese in (83), coffee in (84), grass in (85i), metal in (86), fashion in (87). In (82 ii, iii,) the reference of the mass noun wine is viewed as being partitioned into kinds according to various special properties such as flavour, colour, origin, etc. These properties provide different partitions with criteria of distinctiveness implicitly contained in kind of wine (Baciu 2004b:57). Thus any kind of wine is wine, and any quantity of wine is part of a kind of wine. Syntactically the plural countable term wines has count properties: plural agreement with the verb, plural anaphoric pronouns, count quantifiers, collocations with numeral, regular singular form that collocates with the indefinite article a. It should be noticed that such proper names as Bordeaux, Chianti, Chablis, Jidvei, Prince Stirbey, etc. represent lexicalizations of kinds of wine. Syntactically and semantically these proper names function as mass terms, designating thus kind-level individuals in Carlsons theory. (89) He drank too much Chianti; it went straight to his head. B. The second class includes mass nouns whose recategorization as countable nous refers to an act/an instant/an occasion or occurrence of X, i.e. an act/an instant/an occasion or occurrence that has the quality expressed by X. The interpretations of mass nouns as count nouns may be given a unified analysis by considering the terms falling under this type of recategorization as stages of the kind. All these mass nouns recategorized as count nouns denote spatio-temporal slices of the kind denoted by the corresponding mass term prior to recategorization (Baciu

85

2004b). Examples of mass nouns that undergo this type of categorization include the following: (90) attention, affection, confidence, curiosity, decency, education, idiocy, feeling, freedom, ignominy, immorality, immersion, implication, imposture, kindness, law, novelty, mentality, regard, respect, etc. This recategorization is fairly well illustrated by the examples below: (91) freedom [MT] the state of being free and allowed to do what you want; the right to do what you want without being controlled or restricted, especially by a government or by someone in authority (i) There was a huge party at the Berlin Wall as East Germans celebrated their freedom. [MT] (ii) Kids have too much freedom these days. [MT] freedoms [CT] the right to do what you want without being controlled or restricted by anyone (iii) As children, they dreamed about the freedoms and riches they would enjoy in the U.S. [CT] (92) attention [MT] the interest that people show in someone or something; the state of carefully listening to, looking at, or thinking about someone or something (i) Pets need a lot of care and attention. [MT] (ii) The exhibition received little attention in the press. [MT] (iii) Scott sat down at his desk and turned his attention to the file he had in front of him. [MT] attentions [CT] an act of courtesy or gallantry 86

(iv) The man then turned his attentions to (=became romantically interested in) her sister. [CT] (93) law [MT] the whole system of rules that people in a particular country or area must obey; law as a subject of study, or the profession of being a lawyer (i) In Sweden it is against the law to hit a child. [MT] (ii) Shes studying law in London. [MT] law [CT] a rule that people in a particular country or area must obey; one of the rules which controls a sport or activity (iii) On the crucial issue of land ownership, the many agrarian laws passed in various States have been ineffective in practice. [CT] (iv) The laws against drug use were very severe. [CT] (iv) FIFA is the organization that runs world football and decides whether any of the laws should be changed. [CT] (94) regard [MT] respect and admiration for someone or something; attention or consideration that is shown towards someone or something (i) Burt had high regard for his old law professor, Dr. Finch. [MT] (ii) The present administration has demonstrated little regard for environmental issues. [MT] regard [CT] good wishes or greetings (iii) My husband sends his regards. [CT] (95) affection [MT] a feeling of liking or love and caring (i) Their father never showed them much affection. [MT] affection [CT] the feelings of love and caring that someone has

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(ii) Africa has always had a special place in my affections. [CT] (iii) Bart had a deep affection for the old man. (96) confidence [MT] the feeling that one can trust someone or something to be good, work well, or produce good results; the belief that one has the ability to do things well or deal with situations successfully (i) Opinion polls show that voters have lost confidence in the administration. [MT] (ii) The following teachers writing illustrates how his pupils have gained in confidence and initiative. [MT] confidence [CT] a secret or a piece of information that is private or personal (iii) They spent their evenings drinking wine and sharing confidences.
[CT]

(iv) I have never betrayed a confidence. [CT] (97) kindness [MT] kind behaviour towards someone (i) I shall never forget her kindness to me. [MT] kindness [CT] a kind action (ii) It would be doing him a kindness to tell him the truth. [CT] (98) novelty [MT] the quality of being new, unusual, and interesting (i) I loved driving to work at first, but the novelty soon wore off. [MT] novelty [CT] something new and unusual which attracts peoples attention and interest (ii) Fast-food restaurants like McDonalds are still something of a novelty in Moscow. [CT]

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As shown in the examples from (91) to (98) the recategorized countable nouns evince all the syntactic properties of countable nous in allowing count quantifiers and agreement with the verb in plural or in taking the indefinite article a(n), when used in the singular. In (97) kindness is an abstract mass noun which has all the syntactic properties of mass terms and denotes kind behaviour towards someone. The noun phrase a kindness, on the other hand, is a countable noun and denotes one act of such behaviour. Similarly, law is an abstract mass noun denoting whole system of rules that people in a particular country or area must obey, whereas the noun phrase a law refers to one slice of this whole system of rules, to only one instantiation which realizes the kind law, namely one rule. In (98) novelty is an abstract mass noun which denotes the quality of being new, unusual, and interesting. A novelty, on the other hand, denotes an instantiation of this quality. The instances of recategorization under classes (A) and (B) are cases of synecdoche: the part is substituted for a whole or a whole is substituted for a part. C. The third class includes mass nouns whose recategorization into countable nous denotes something related to X (X being the mass noun recategorized as count noun). The interpretations of mass nouns as count nouns may be given a unified analysis by considering the terms falling under this type of recategorization as objects of the kind. All these mass nouns recategorized as count nouns denote object-level entities of the kind-level entity denoted by the corresponding mass term Baciu (2004b: 59). The instances of recategorization belonging to class (C) are cases of metonymy: the substitution of a word referring to an attribute for the entity that is denoted. (99) beauty [MT] a quality that people, places, or things have that makes them very attractive to look at (i) This was the birthplace of the Renaissance and its streets revel in artistic beauty. [MT] (ii) He had written a poem about Sylvia, praising her charm and beauty.
[MT]

beauty [CT] a beautiful thing; a woman who is very beautiful

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(iii) Erics new car is a real beauty. [CT] (iv) She was considered a great beauty in her youth. [CT] (100) novelty [MT] the quality of being new, unusual, and interesting (i) I loved driving to work at first, but the novelty soon wore off. [MT] novelty [CT] an unusual, small, usually cheap ornament or trinket, often given as a present (ii) They sell a selection of crafts, novelties, and T-shirts. [CT] (101) justice [MT] the administration of law according to prescribed and accepted principles (i) The criminal was brought to justice. [MT] justice [CT] a person appointed to administer justice (ii) A magistrate is a justice of the peace. [CT] (102) nylon [MT] a class of synthetic polyamide materials (i) The tent was made of nylon. [MT] nylon [CT] cloth or yarn made of this; womens stockings that are made of nylon (ii) She bought several nylons. [CT] (103) tin [MT] a soft silver-white metal that is often used to cover and protect iron and steel (i) The alluvial tin, from the Malayan river gravels, is almost exhausted.

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tin [CT] a metal container with a lid in which food can be stored; a small metal container in which food or drink is sold; a metal container with a lid, in which paint, glue etc is sold (ii) She bought a tin of Christmas cookies. [CT] (iii) Do you want a tin of beer? [CT] (iv) All I wanted was a tin of paint. [CT] To conclude our discussion of the recategorization of mass nouns as countable nouns, it should be pointed out that all the three main cases of recategorization are productive in present day English.

5.2. Singular mass term Plural mass term shift

There is another class of mass nouns which, although have a corresponding plural form, do not involve recategorization as count nouns, as the newly formed noun is still a mass term. Consider the following examples: (104) snow snows; salt salts; sand sands; water waters; wit wits. If recategorization of mass nouns into countable nouns determines nouns to adopt new meanings, the newly formed nouns in (104) do not change their meaning. In terms of meaning there is no significant difference between the singular mass noun and its corresponding plural mass noun to the extent to which the former includes the latter (snow snows a large amount of snow). As far as their syntactic behaviour is concerned, these plural mass nouns differ from their singular counterparts in that they trigger plural agreement with the verb and plural anaphoric pronouns. However, like singular mass nouns they require mass quantifiers (cf. Crainiceanu 2007). (105)

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Mount Kenyas snows are fading. Antarctic waters are cold, dark, deep and teeming with life. The waters of the Indus basin begin in the Himalayan Mountains of Indian held Kashmir. They flow from the hills through the arid states of Punjab and Sind, converging in Pakistan and emptying into the Arabian Sea south of Karachi.

5.3. Recategorization of count(able) nouns as mass nouns

As we have already seen in Section 5.1 on the recategorization of mass nouns as countable nouns, the material may be transferred to the entity (iron - an iron; silver a silver; butter butters). Similarly, a noun denoting an entity or class of entities can be used to name the material (an onion much onion; a pudding much pudding). The list below includes several examples of nouns that although are countable in their basic meaning may acquire a mass noun use depending on the context: (106) (i) The rattling carriage was full of rucksacks and hikers and blackdressed Greek ladies with chickens. [CT] (ii) Would you like some chicken for dinner? [MT] (107) (i) Tests on naturally contaminated eggs show multiplication cannot occur in an intact egg. [CT] (ii) She cooked me egg and chips and sat by me while I ate. [MT] (108) (i) Would you like an apple? [CT] (ii) There is too much apple in the salad. [MT] (109) By mashing ten potatoes [CT], you get enough potato [MT] for this recipe.

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(110) (i) Several hundred acres of rustling, wind-blown grass swept over our feet and under scattered oaks. [CT] (ii) She pressed her back against the door, grateful for the support of its solid carved oak. [MT] As the examples above show the countable use is for separate things or individual instances, while the uncountable use is for something viewed as substance or material.

5.4. Count(able) nouns with no corresponding mass occurrences

Some countable nouns cannot be recategorized as mass nouns, but they have instead lexicalized forms for the corresponding mass use. This is the particular case of countable nouns that denote some animals. The meat of the respective animal is designated by a lexical item which is semantically and syntactically a mass noun. Consider the examples below: (111) Count pig sheep calf deer cow (112) He kept pigs and poultry. [CT] She has bought some pork for dinner. [MT] (113) Sheep were grazing on the hillside. [CT] He therefore ordered an early dinner of roast mutton to be served in his quarters at three oclock that afternoon. [MT] 93 Mass pork mutton veal venison beef

(114) Thus farmers sell milk and young calves, as well as wool and lambs which are fattened on nearby lowland farms. [CT] Menus tend to be Germanic with large helpings of soup, veal or sausage and Rsti potatoes. [MT] (115) We still have lots of deer, very little water and not many open spaces.
[CT]

Theyre deer-stealers - I saw a dead deer in their car. [CT] He serves the venison with a wild rice compote that contains sun-dried pears, a hard-to-find ingredient. [MT] (116) This part of West London seemed like the country to me, with none of the disadvantages, no cows or farmers. [CT] In the land of the cowboy you might expect beef to be an unfailingly popular dish. [MT] The noun poultry is a special case. When it denotes birds such as chickens and ducks that are kept on farms in order to produce eggs and meat the noun is invariable in the plural and therefore triggers agreement with the verb in the plural, plural anaphoric pronouns and collocates with a plural demonstrative. (117) Because the poultry being held have been fed adulterated products, USDA cannot approve products derived from these poultry for human consumption. Poultry are free ranging and scavenge for food. Smuggling of these poultry and poultry products is considered by many to be the primary way avian flu is likely to be spread into other countries. When poultry denotes to meat from birds such as chickens and ducks it has the properties of a mass noun: it triggers singular agreement with

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the verb and singular anaphoric pronouns and requires mass quantifiers. (118) Have poultry once or twice a week. Raw poultry is a known source of pathogens. Its difficult to estimate how much poultry China buys from U.S. producers. In both cases, however, the noun is uncountable.

5.5. Recategorization of proper names as count(able) nouns

To conclude our discussion on the recategorization of mass nouns and countable nous we should turn our attention to cases of recategorization of proper names as count(able) nouns. (119) It is a Rembrandt but not a self-portrait. The National Gallery has many more Rembrandts than the National Gallery of Scotland. So many Vermeers have not been seen together since a sale in 1696. Forty pictures reputed to be lost Van Goghs are to go on public display this week in an exhibition that will throw open one of the longest-running and most acrimonious controversies in the art world. Another Monet, Les arceaux de Roses, Giverny, from the artists water lilies series painted in his famous garden, started the night in pride of place with an estimate of 9-12 million. But it sold for 8 million. I believe the souls of five hundred Sir Isaac Newtons would go to the making of a Shakespeare or a Milton. As Quine (1960) points out, it is not the nature of the referent which makes a name to be a mass term, a general term or a singular term33, but
33

Quine (1960:90) contrasts general terms to singular terms and defines singular terms as terms that have unique reference, while a general term is true of each, severally, of any number of objects.

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rather the way in which reality is viewed and ordered within each natural language.

6. Pluralia tantum nouns

The term pluralia tantum is Latin in origin (in the singular: plural tantum) and it can roughly be translated as plural only. It covers the nouns which have only one form, the plural one. Pluralia tantum nouns have been classified according to their meaning and origin in various groups that designate (i) illnesses, (ii) names of sciences, (iii) names of games, (iv) instruments, (v) articles of clothing, (vi) parts of the body, as well as other nouns that do not belong to these subclasses (Stefanescu 1988: 80-81; Baciu 2004b:74-5). Traditional grammars have regarded the class of pluralia tantum nouns as a homogenous one. As we shall see, however, the nouns labelled pluralia tantum are definitely non-homogeneous with respect to the distinction between sortals (that evince count noun properties) and non-sortals (that display mass noun properties). Pluralia tantum nouns can be divided into two main subclasses: (i) nouns that display mass noun properties and (ii) nouns that evince count properties. In what follows, the description draws on Stefanescu (1988).

6.1 Nouns that display mass noun properties

A. Nouns denoting certain physical and mental illnesses such as appendicitis, creeps, diabetes, dismals, dumps, fidgets, glanders, gripes, horrors, hysterics, jerks, jumps, measles, mumps, pouts, rabies, rickets, shakes, shivers, shingles, sullens, staggers, sulks, tantrums, thrills, tonsillitis, vapours, etc. These nouns have the properties of mass nouns, except for the presence of the plural suffix s on the noun. Consider the following examples: (120) But one summer when I was around ten or eleven I developed a nasty sore throat which the doctor thought was tonsillitis.

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Measles is in most cases a relatively harmless disease. Tuberculosis and malnutrition were prevalent, as was rickets. Insulin will bring a diabetic to normal without the faintest need of a knife, but appendicitis needs an operation. Rickets is caused by a deficiency of vitamin D. Gestational diabetes recurs in about 50 percent of women who had the problem in a previous pregnancy. Glanders has broken out in the American mules remount-farm at Stellenbosch. The whole of her first year was one continual series of sulks, quarrels and revolts. Shingles has severe complications. The time and Miss Pross making tea, with another fit of the jerks upon her. The examples in (120) show that the pluralia tantum nouns in this group have mass noun properties: They trigger singular agreement with the verb and singular anaphoric pronouns These nouns do not co-occur with the indefinite article a(n) and cardinal quantifiers Individuation can be achieved by means of the following type of individuating expressions: a series of, a fit of, e.g. a fit of the dismalls/sulens, a series of sulks.

B. Nouns denoting some games: billiards, bowls, cards, checkers, darts, dominoes, draughts, fives, forfeits, marbles, ninepins, skittles, etc. These nouns have mass noun properties, except for the presence of the plural marker. Consider the following examples that illustrate their use: (121) Billiards was gradually replaced by bridge. Ninepins requires great skill. Marbles is a game similar to bowls. As in previous case, this group of nouns display mass noun behaviour: They trigger singular agreement with the verb and singular anaphoric pronouns 97

They do not occur with the indefinite article, count quantifiers and numerals Individuation is achieved by means of such individuating expressions as: a game of, around of.

Remark Skittles, ninepins, draughts dominoes may also be recategorized as countable nouns and occur in the singular form, i.e. ninepin, skittle, draught, domino. In this case, however, designation to the pieces is intended. (122) He sets up his four ninepins designation to bottle-shaped objects is intended In this game you must knock over as many skittles as possible skittles designates the objects shaped like bottles C. Nouns that denote subjects of study/sciences and sports ending in - ics: acoustics, aerobics, aerodynamics, aeronautics, athletics, classics, economics, electronics, ethics, genetics, gymnastics, linguistics, logistics, mathematics, mechanics, obstetrics, phonetics, physics, politics, statistics, thermodynamics etc. These nouns have mass noun behaviour since they display all the properties of mass terms: (i) singular agreement with the verb, (ii) singular anaphoric pronouns, (iii) no indefinite article and or cardinal quantifiers. Consider the examples in (123): (123) Acoustics is the study of sounds. Linguistics has developed significantly in modern times. Physics is fun. Politics plays a large part in village life. Comparative politics focuses on similarities and differences in political processes and structures. Economics is the oldest of the social sciences. Mathematics is the science of quantities; its students are mathematicians. Politics, as a profession, was of importance to him. Statistics is a branch of mathematics.

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Some of these nouns can be recategorized as countable nouns, in which case they may occur with the verb in the plural, as well as with plural determiners and anaphoric pronouns. Some may even develop a singular form. It has been suggested that in this case we deal with a case of metonymic shift of the type the instrument for product shift (Baciu 2004b:78). The examples below illustrate this use: (124) acoustics [MT] the scientific study of sound acoustics [CT] the shape and size of a room which affect the way sound is heard in it Seats are small but plush, and the acoustics are excellent [CT] economics [MT] the study of the way in which money and goods are produced and used economics [CT] the way in which money influences whether a plan, business etc will work effectively Perhaps it is time we had a choice between parties which agree that liberal free-market economics are here to stay [CT] mathematics [MT] a group of related sciences including algebra, geometry, and calculus, concerned with the study of number, quantity, shape, etc. mathematics [CT] mathematical operations and processes involved in the solution of a problem or study Do mathematics make ones manners masculine? Well, they have not done so in your case. But still they are not womanly pursuits [CT] It was those infernal mathematics, which I have always neglected [CT] politics [MT] the study of political power and systems of government politics [CT] ideas and activities relating to gaining and using power in a country, city, etc.; someones political beliefs and opinions Company politics are frequently vicious [CT] His politics are clearly right-wing [CT]

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statistics [MT] a science concerned with the collection, classification and interpretation of quantitative data statistics [CT] quantitative data themselves; a single number which represents a fact or measurement Statistics show that 50% of new businesses fail in their first year [CT] There is one surprising statistic in your report [CT] The statistic comes from a study recently conducted by the British government [CT] tactics [MT] the science of arranging and moving military forces in a battle tactics [CT] plans followed to achieve an aim Shock tactics are being used in an attempt to stop drink drivers [CT] One tactic she has used is to decide matters outside the formal Cabinet, either in committees or in informal groups [CT] Giving out criticism rather than praise is a tactic that rarely works in the workplace [CT] At this stage of our investigation of pluralia tantum nouns, it should be pointed out that these three groups of nouns described above display mass noun properties. Syntactically they co-occur with singular verbs and singular anaphoric pronouns and they do not co-occur with the indefinite article a(n) and cardinal quantifiers. Semantically they do not divide their reference. The nouns in the third group, nouns that designate sciences, may be recategorized as countable terms. In all cases in which the recategorization from a mass term to a countable term has taken place, there is a change in the type of determiners and quantifiers. To these three subclasses we should add the noun news, which although plural in form, triggers singular agreement with the verb and singular anaphoric pronouns as the examples below illustrate: (125) Heres the 10 oclock news No news is good news. The latest news down the telephone line is that Madonna has just bought one. As in the case of the first two groups which behave as mass nouns, individuation is achieved by means of phrases such as a piece of news, an item of news, several pieces of news, several items of news. 100

(126) Every piece of news is scrutinised for negative implications. The space agency decision was a welcome piece of news. I received this piece of news with resignation but no enthusiasm. In what follows we will move on to three more subgroups of nouns that could be included under the heading pluralia tantum, although some grammars treat these nouns as examples of binary nouns or summation plurals given the fact that they denote entities (either tools, instruments or articles of dress) that are viewed as comprising two equal parts joined together. As we shall see from the examples below, the nouns belonging to these subgroups display count properties and semantically divide their reference, qualifying thus as sortals.

6.2 Nouns that evince count properties

D. Nouns denoting instruments/tools comprising two equal parts joined together such as: bellows, binoculars, chains, fetters, forceps, glasses, irons, pliers, scales, scissors, shears, spectacles, tongs, tweezers, etc. All these nouns trigger plural agreement with the verb, plural anaphoric pronouns and plural determiners. For the vast majority of these nouns, individuation is possible by means of the individuating expression a pair of, several pairs of. The individuating expression used with the noun scales is a set of: a set of kitchen scales. (127) Dont touch those scissors. Never use these scissors to cut paper as this will blunt them. Downstairs he found Beryl at the table with the newspaper, her coffee and a pair of scissors. A pair of secateurs might also be useful. On the whole, good secateurs are safer and cleaner for your roses, as well as yourself. She was plucking her eyebrows with a pair of tweezers. Tweezers are used for handling small objects or plucking hairs. I spend a lot of time on the bathroom scales - too much time - I really should throw them away! 101

The bathroom scales are a shrine to which believers turn daily. I went down to the cellar to find a pair of pliers. A few of these nouns are found with the plural used as a singular: (128) About the only way to eliminate Argulus is to remove the sea horses and pick off the parasites with a tweezers. I had seen Bella, when she was about to fry meat, cutting it with a scissors instead of a knife. E. Nouns denoting articles of dress consisting of symmetrical parts such as: braces, jeans, overalls, pants, pyjamas, shorts, suspenders, tights, trousers, trunks, etc. Just like in the previous case, these nouns display count noun properties: they trigger plural agreement with the verb, plural anaphoric pronouns and plural determiners. Individuation is achieved by means of the individuating expression a pair of. Consider the examples below: (129) These trousers are slightly too short for you. Those pants have a big patch on them. I stripped off my pyjamas and restored them to the rucksack. You will then change into a set of white overalls which are made of paper. He was still carrying his mop and broom and wearing his brown overalls. Remarks The noun overalls has developed a singular form overall with a slightly different meaning (a loose-fitting piece of clothing like a coat, that is worn over clothes to protect them) that displays all the properties of countable nouns. He was wearing a white overall on top of his grey prison issue clothes and he pulled the overall off as soon as he was inside. 102

That white overall was a passport to the scene of the murder. Whenever nouns under D and E occur in attributive position or in compounds, the singular form is used: a spectacle case, a pyjama cord, a suspender belt, a trouser leg, etc.

F. Nouns designating parts of the body which are made up of two (or several) more or less distinct parts such as: bowels, entrails, guts, gums, lungs, innards, whiskers, etc. These nouns also evince countable properties, qualifying as sortal terms. (130) The lungs, or as they are vulgarly called lights, are eaten as parts of the pluck or fry. I stopped, breathed deeply, and smiled as sweet air filled my lungs. Vitamin C is also important for healthy gums. There were blood and guts all over the place. She laughs and says his whiskers tickle. The bowels contain more nerves than the spine. Whiskers are an important sensory organ for rats. When reference is made to one of the two parts that make up the respective body part, some of these nouns also have a singular form, qualifying thus as fully fledged countable terms (bowel bowels, lung lungs, whisker- whiskers, gum gums, tit tits, eyelash eyelashes, etc.). (131) If the lung is expanding, the radiation bouncing off it is pushed closer together, slightly raising its frequency. One of the knife blows had punctured a lung. It can take 72 hours for food to pass through the gut. This suggests a discrepancy in absorption in both the large and small bowel. This is a high amplitude burst of contractions that start in the stomach and are propagated distally into the lower small bowel. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University removed all but one whisker from a group of rats. Not only did the single whisker activate the expected neurons, it also stimulated surrounding clusters of neurons.

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To the six subgroups of nouns considered so far and labelled pluralia tantum, grammarians also add some other nouns that seem to display a coherent syntactic behaviour but do not appear to form a semantically coherent group. Such a subgroup includes such nouns as dregs, grits, grounds, husks, lees, sediments, remains, etc. These nouns trigger plural agreement with the verb. However, from a semantic point of view, they behave like mass nous and thus they do not divide their reference: any sum of parts of the stuff is the respective stuff. Consider the examples below: (132) The lees are an important component in the making of Ripasso where the left-over lees from Amarone are used to impart more flavour and colour to partially-aged Valpolicella. There were husks in his corn that even Game Chickens couldnt peck up. On the table were the remains of the evening meal. Coffee grounds act as a green material with a carbon-nitrogen (C-N) ratio of 20-1. Combined with leaves and straw, coffee grounds generate heat and will speed up the compost process. Nouns like amends, annals, arms (weapons), assizes, auspices, communications (ways of sending information, especially using radio, telephone, or computers), outskirts, remains, and troops. These nouns are plural-only nouns both in form and syntactically. They trigger plural agreement with the verb and plural anaphoric pronouns. (133) He still lives on the outskirts of his adopted city close on 30 years after he signed for them. The annals of the police courts tell a rather different story. Assizes were held periodically in every English county. The hustings for the new parliamentary elections were in progress. Modern communications are enabling more people to work from home. As for the Federal troops, they were dispirited but not robbed of their confidence. Six hundred federal troops from Fort Sam Houston were assigned to aid in keeping order. Another group of nouns that are often included in the class of pluralia tantum nouns includes nouns ending in ing which occur with 104

a plural form and trigger plural agreement with the verb and plural anaphoric pronouns, as the examples below illustrate: (134) All bearings herein are magnetic. There were considerable savings both on the capital cost of power stations and on their operating costs. So they packed their few belongings and rushed to southeast Washington. The incomings and outgoings of the private purse are faithfully set down. All these nouns, with few exceptions (e.g. earnings, leavings) have a singular form. Thus they seem to behave as countable terms. Nevertheless, most of these nouns, when used in the singular, qualify as event nouns in which case they designate an act or process and semantically and syntactically behave like uncountable/mass nouns (Baciu 2004b:84). We can thus safely assume that when they are used in the singular they undergo the recategorization MT CT. Regarding the semantic and syntactic behaviour of pluralia tantum nouns we can conclude that, contrary to the descriptions offered by traditional grammars, these nouns make up a non-homogenous class with respect to the distinction mass term countable term. The class can be roughly divided into two subclasses: a subclass of pluralia tantum nouns that exhibit mass noun properties and another sub-class that displays countable noun properties. The presence of in-between cases like the ones discussed above clearly shows that the distinction between mass nouns and countable nous is not discrete but scalar: some nouns meet some but not all count or mass noun properties.

7. Number with compounds

Compound nouns may be countable or uncountable. Others, although including countable nouns, tend to be used in the singular or plural. The plural forms of compound nouns vary according to the type of words they consist of.

7.1 Plural in the first element

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A few compound nouns are less directly related to phrasal verbs consisting of a noun or a gerund that has been derived from a phrasal verb (e.g. pass by passer-by; sum up summing-up). (135) But outside the battered congress building few passers-by look twice at yet another standoff between demonstrators and riot police. In compound nouns where the noun is postmodified by a prepositional phrase, an adjective, an adverb or an infinitive, the first element (i.e. the noun) is usually marked for plural. (136) I like birds of prey and hawks particularly. The veil places brides-to-be at a distinct advantage. I have considered them my comrades in arms. The following list includes some common compound nouns marked for plural in the first element: Singular attorney general brother-in-law coat-of-arms commander-in-chief consul general court martial father-in-law grant-in-aid hanger-on lady-in-waiting looker-on maid of honour man-at-arms man-of-war mother-in-law notary public passer-by 106 Plural attorneys general brothers-in-law coats-of-arms commanders-in-chief consuls general courts martial fathers-in-law grants-in-aid hangers-on ladies-in-waiting lookers-on maids of honour men-at-arms men-of-war mothers-in-law notaries public passers-by

poet laureate sister-in-law summing-up Remark

poets laureate sisters-in-law summings-up

In a number of compounds where the head is postmodified by an adjective, the compound is felt as a single unit, thus the plural inflection -s can be added at the end: lord mayors brigadier generals court-martials knight-errants poet laureates (137) Two US soldiers face court martials for marrying Iraqi women. Similarly, in some compounds where the noun is postmodified by a prepositional phrase the compound is felt as a single unit, thus the plural inflection -s is often added at the end. This feature is particularly characteristic of AmE: (138) commander-in-chiefs mother-in-laws sister-in-laws daughter-in-laws (139) Some mother-in-laws are sweet. They bake cookies for you and support your every decision. Probably one of the most beloved Commander-In-Chiefs in history was Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a man who led the U. S. and its allies in World War II, crafted the New Deal, and is rightly (or wrongly) credited with lifting the U. S. out of the Great Depression. 107 for for for for commanders-in-chief mothers-in-law sisters-in-law daughters-in-law for for for for for lords mayor brigadiers general courts-martial knights-errant poets laureate

7.2 Plural in the last element

If the final word of a compound noun is a countable noun, the compound pluralizes the final element. (140) Air raids were taking place every night. Shrill voices would be heard through letter-boxes. health centres, banks, post offices and police stations. Compound nous related to phrasal verbs are spelt with a hyphen and marked for plural in the last element. (141) Nobody seems disturbed about cover-ups when they are essential to the conduct of a war. People who drive smarter, faster cars than mine are a bunch of low-grade show-offs. The following are some of the most common compounds marked for plural in the last element: Singular apple tree assistant director boy friend close-up cover-up fountain pen shut-in grown-up sit-in show-off take-off gin-and-tonic 108 Plural apple trees assistant directors boy friends close-ups cover-ups fountain pens shut-ins grown-ups sit-ins show-off take-offs gin-and-tonics

forget-me-not

forget-me-nots

Compounds written as one word add the plural morpheme to the end of the word. Singular breakdown bucketful cupful journeyman spoonful standby stepchild stowaway toothpick Plural breakdowns bucketfuls cupfuls journeymen spoonfuls standbys stepchildren stowaways toothpicks

7.3 Plural in both the first and the last element

Compounds including the nouns man and woman are marked for plural in both elements. Singular gentleman farmer manservant woman doctor Plural gentlemen farmers; menservants women doctors

Some compound nouns borrowed from such languages as French and Latin retain their plural forms from the language of origin. (142) [...] aided by agents by agents provocateurs sent into our midst. [...] while the nouveaux riches of younger states built themselves palatial mansions.

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8. Conclusion
It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the count/mass distinction depends on how things are conceptualized, which to a certain extent is independent of their objective nature. An entity can be construed in alternate ways, each of which highlights certain aspects of it while downplaying others. To take an example, some oblong pieces of wood can be referred to as either boards or lumber. Although they are referentially identical, the plural form boards renders salient the individual constitutive entities, whereas lumber suppresses their individuation in favour of highlighting a homogenous mass: three boards vs. *three lumber, these boards vs. this lumber. These different construals are incorporated as part of the established meanings of these forms, a matter of shared linguistic convention. Speakers thus have the conceptual flexibility to construe the situation in either fashion and select the form whose meaning best suits their communicative intent. A further consequence of this conceptual dexterity is the great fluidity of the count/mass distinction. The count/mass distinction is anything but a rigid lexical opposition such that a given noun belongs definitively and exclusively to one or the other category. For instance, diamond functions as a mass noun when the constitutive substance is not discretely instantiated, but instead its qualitative properties are focused on (Diamond is a very hard substance). Similarly, gold may function as a count noun when it refers to a kind of gold (a discrete though abstract entity) rather than the substance per se (I am looking for a gold that is just the right colour for a ring). To varying degrees, particular forms are conventionally established as either count or mass nouns, or even both. Learning such conventions is part of mastering a language. However, there is always the option a novel construal. Consequently, general patterns of language use for recategorizing count nouns as mass nouns, and the reverse, ensure that almost every noun can in principle be employed in either manner. However, not all nouns fit comfortably in the classificatory scheme mentioned above. Cattle, for instance, is not a plural (since there is no corresponding singular), yet it grammatically behaves as such: those cattle, few cattle, Several cattle are grazing, etc. Conversely, many nouns that are plural in form diverge from typical plurals both in meaning and grammatical behaviour. A well-known example is oats, which appears to be the plural of oat, a stem which does occur (e.g. oatmeal). But this stem cannot be used as a singular count noun to 110

designate one of the salient constitutive particles (*an oat, *this oat), nor are the particles countable (*three oats, many oats). On the other hand, nouns like scissors, pliers, tweezers, binoculars, trousers, shorts, which designate a single object made up of two identical parts, exhibit varying mixtures of singular- and plural-noun behaviours (a scissors, but These scissors are broken).

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