Introduction
Number is thegrammatical category of the noun which shows whether we speak of one thing orof more than one. The category of number is expressed by the oppositionof the plural form of the noun to its singular form.
Accordingly,there are two numbers: the singular and the plural.
The problem ofcategory of number of nouns is very essential nowadays. Russian and Englishlanguages ​​have different grammatical, syntactical and phonetic forms ofexpression. These languages ​​have nouns which are used only in the singular, onlyin the plural and both in singular and plural. A lot of people in the processof communication make mistakes because they don't know rules and laws necessaryfor exact case.
The goal ofthe present work is to study the category of number of English nouns andcompare it with the Russian ones.
Objectives ofthe present work:
1.To consider the category of number of nouns
2.To study different types of number
3.To analyze the formation and meaning of number
4.To study different cases of usage of category of number of nouns
5.To consider the development of plural forms in connection with achange of meaning of the noun
6.To study Russian category of number of nouns, different cases ofusage
Practicalsignificance of this work is that it can be used in educational establishments,at classes on theoretical and practical grammar. This work can be useful forstudents, studying English language.
The term-paperconsists of content, introduction, three main chapters, conclusion,bibliography and appendix.
1. The Problem of Category of Number in Modern English
1.1 The Category of Number of Nouns
The category of number is expressed by the opposition of the plural form of the noun toits singular form. The semantic difference of the oppositional members of thecategory of number in many linguistic works is treated traditionally:the meaning of the singular is interpretation as В«oneВ» and the meaning of theplural as В«manyВ» (more than one).
As thetraditional interpretation of the singular and the plural members does not workin many cases, recently the categorical meaning of the plural has beenreconsidered and now it is interpreted as the denotation of В«the potentiallydismembering reflection of the structure of the referent В».
Thecategorical opposition of number is subjected to the process ofoppositional reduction. Neutralization takes place when countable nouns beginto function as Singularia Tantum nouns, denoting in such cases either abstractideas or some mass material, e.g. on my birthday we always have goose; orwhen countable nouns are used in the function of the Absolute Plural: the board are not unanimous on the question. A stylistically marked transposition isachieved by the use of the descriptive uncountable plural ( the fruits of the toil are not always visible) and the В«repetition pluralВ» ( car after car rushed past me). In Modern English the form of the singular ofnouns is a bare stem without any flexion or with zero inflexion. Nouns inplural are characterized by ending В«-s (-es)В».
The meaning ofnumber expresses by grammatical forms is extremely generalized. Concretemeanings of nouns can be expressed lexically with the help of numerals andgrammatically through grammatical meaning of inflexions. A zero inflexionindicates one thing and the grammatical form with an opposite inflexionindicates more than one things.
The presencein language of such ways of expressing a generalized meaning of number must beconsidered as a result of a process of abstraction formed by the human thoughtfor a long period of time. [1]
Modern Englishlike most other languages ​​distinguishes two numbers: singular and plural. The meaning of singular and plural seems to be self-explanatory, that is theopposition: one - more than one. The essential meaning of the category (innouns) is not that of quantity, but of discreteness. Concrete meanings ofnouns can be expressed lexically with the help of numerals and grammaticallythrough grammatical meaning of inflexions. A zero inflexion indicates one thingand the grammatical form with an opposite inflexion indicates more than onethings.
1.2 Types of Number
a)Singular versus plural. In most languages ​​with grammatical number, nouns, andsometimes other parts of speech, have two forms, the singular, for one instanceof a concept, and the plural, for more than one instance. Usually, the singularis the unmarked form of a word, and the plural is obtained by inflecting thesingular.
b)Collective versus singulative. Some languages ​​differentiate between a basicform, the collective, which is indifferent in respect to number, and a morecomplicated derived form for single entities, the singulative. A rough examplein English is «snowflake», which may be considered a singulative form of «snow»(Although English has no productive process of forming singulative nouns, andno singulative modifiers).
c) Dual number. The distinction between a «singular» number (one) and a«Plural» number (more than one) found in English is not the only possibleclassification. Another one is «singular» (one), «dual» (two) and «plural» (morethan two). Dual number existed in Proto-Indo-European. Many more modernIndo-European languages ​​show residual traces of the dual, as in the Englishdistinctions both versus all and better versus best.
d) Trial number. The trial number is a grammatical number referring to'Three items', in contrast to 'singular' (one item), 'dual' (two items), and'Plural' (four or more items). There is a hierarchy between number categories:No language distinguishes a trial unless having a dual, and no language has dualwithout a plural. English, along with the other Germanic languages ​​and mostRomance languages, uses the plural.
e) Distributive plural. Distributive plural number, for many instancesviewed as independent individuals (eg in Navajo).
In most languages, the singular is formally unmarked, whereas theplural is marked in some way. Other languages, most notably the Bantulanguages, mark both the singular and the plural, for instance Swahili (seeexample above). The third logical possibility, rarely found in languages, isunmarked plural contrasting with marked singular.
Elements marking number may appear on nouns and pronouns independent-marking languages ​​or on verbs and adjectives in head-markinglanguages.
There areseveral types of number: singular versus plural, collective versus singulativ,dual number, trial number and distributive plural. But Modern English like mostother languages ​​distinguishes only two numbers: singular and plural
1.3 Meaning and Formation of Number
1. InModern English the singular form of the nouns is a bare stem with a zero-inflexion(Нульова флексія): book, boy,girl.
The plural isformed by the inflexion - (e) s [z, s, iz]: boy - boys, book - books, box - boxes.
Compare theRussian noun стіл (столи) which alsohas a zero-inflexion in the nominative case of the singular, with the noun річка (річки), which has apositive inflexion in the nominative case of the singular as well as of theplural.
The inflexion -(E) s is a modification of the Old English plural inflexion - as. InOld English there were several ways of forming the plural; the - as inflexionwhich was used only with masculine nouns, later on in its modified form (-as>-es>-s) became the general inflexion of the p...
