The category of number

  • is the linguistic representation of the objective category of quantity
  • is realized through the opposition of two form-classes: the plural form :: the singular form.
  • is restricted in its realization because of the dependent implicit grammatical meaning of countableness/uncountableness.
  • is realized only within subclass of countable nouns.

The grammatical meaning of number may not coincide with the notional quantity

  • the noun in the singular does not necessarily denote one object
  • the plural form may be used to denote one object consisting of several parts

The singular form may denote

  • oneness (individual separate object – a cat)
  • generalization (the meaning of the whole class – The cat is a domestic animal)
  • indiscreteness (or uncountableness - money, milk)

The plural form may denote

  • the existence of several objects (cats)
  • the inner discreteness (pluralia tantum - jeans)

all nouns may be subdivided into three groups

  1. The nouns in which the opposition of explicit discreteness/indiscreteness is expressed : cat/cats

  1. The nouns in which this opposition is not expressed explicitly but is revealed by syntactical and lexical correlation in the context.

A. Singularia tantum. It covers different groups of nouns: proper names, abstract nouns, material nouns, collective nouns

B. Pluralia tantum. It covers the names of objects consisting of several parts (jeans), names of sciences (mathematics), names of diseases, games, etc

  1. The nouns with homogenous number forms