In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity (i.e., grammatical number) representing a value of ''more-than-one''. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker (morpheme) is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically ''one''. Plurality is a linguistic universal, represented variously among the languages as a separate word (free morpheme), an affix (bound morpheme), or by other morphological indications such as stress or implicit markers/context.
In the English language, singular and plural are the only usual grammatical numbers, with minor dual exceptions ("both", "twice", "either", etc.)
A plural is commonly abbreviated pl. in dictionaries. In part-of-speech tagging it has other notation which distinguish different types of plurals based on the grammatical and semantic context.
Some plural forms require more noticeable changes in word structure. Most words ending in a ''y'' preceded by a consonant are pluralised with ''ies'' (e.g., ''one lady'', ''two ladies''; ''one cherry'', ''two cherries''). Some words ending in ''f'' are pluralised with ''-ves'' (e.g., ''one leaf''; ''two leaves''; exception: ''one roof''; ''two roofs''). Words ending in ''x'' are often pluralised with ''-ces'' (e.g., ''one matrix'', ''two matrices''; ''one index'', ''two indices''). Words ending in ''us'' often replace the ''us'' with ''-i'' (e.g., ''one cactus'', ''two cacti''; ''one fungus'', ''two fungi''). A subset of words ending in ''um'' or ''on'' are pluralised by replacing with ''-a'' (e.g., ''one forum'', ''two fora''; ''one criterion'', ''two criteria'').
Other variations occur where vowels and consonants change in the middle structure of the word. Such examples are, (''1 die; 2 dice''), (''1 goose; 2 geese'') and, (''1 mouse; 2 mice'').
A small class of words have identical singular and plural forms: e.g., ''one sheep'', ''two sheep''; ''one aircraft'', ''two aircraft''.
See English plural#Irregular plurals for more examples of irregular pluralisation.
Some languages (like Mele-Fila) distinguish between a plural and a greater plural. A greater plural refers to an abnormally large number for the object of discussion. It should also be noted that the distinction between the paucal, the plural, and the greater plural is often relative to the type of object under discussion. For example, in discussing oranges, the paucal number might imply fewer than ten, whereas for the population of a country, it might be used for a few hundred thousand.
The Austronesian languages of Sursurunga and Lihir have singular, dual, paucal, greater paucal, and plural. Such languages as these have the most complex grammatical number in the world.
To indicate the plural of the abbreviation of a unit of measure, the same form is used as in the singular.
According to ''Hart's Rules'', an apostrophe may be used in rare cases where clarity calls for it, for example when letters or symbols are referred to as objects.
In Latin, and continuing to the derivative forms in European languages as well as English, single-letter abbreviations had the plural being a doubling of the letter for note-taking. Most of these deal with writing and publishing. A few longer abbreviations use this as well.
!Singular abbreviation | !Singular Word | !Plural abbreviation | !Plural Word | !Discipline |
d. | didot | dd. | didots | typography |
f. | following line or page | ff. | following lines or pages | notes |
h. | hand | hh. | hands | horse height |
l. | line | ll. | lines | notes |
MS | manuscript | MSS | manuscripts | notes |
op. | opus | opp. | opera | notes |
p. | page | pp. | pages | notes |
P. | pope | PP. | popes | |
s. (or §) | section | ss. (or §§) | sections | notes |
v. | volume | vv. | volumes | notes |
An interesting difference from Romance/Germanic languages is found in some Slavic and Baltic languages. Here, the final digits of the number determine its form. Though most of the modern Slavic languages lack dual form, they do have traces of dual form. For example, Polish has singular and plural, and a special form (paucal) for numbers where the last digit is 2, 3 or 4, (excluding endings of 12, 13 and 14). Russian uses plural form of words ending like genitive singular form for numbers where the last digit is 2-4 (but not endings of 12, 13 and 14) and genitive plural form of words for all other numbers. In addition, Slovene preserved pure dual, using it for numbers ending in 2. In Serbo-Croatian (in addition to the paucal for numbers 2–4), several nouns have alternate forms for counting plural and collective plural (the latter being treated as a collective noun). For example, there are two ways to say leaves: ''lišće'' (collective) is used in "Leaves are falling from the trees", but ''listovi'' (counting) is used in "Those are some beautiful leaves". Old Church Slavonic (also known as Old Slavic), which is close to Proto-Slavic, had dual form not only for nouns, but also for verbs, almost like Sanskrit. Latin, though high inflectional and close to Proto-Indo-European, lacks dual form and some say that the ancestor of the Italic languages or even of Italic and Celtic languages had lost it.
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Coordinates | 50°12′18″N7°20′12″N |
---|---|
name | Can I Get a Witness |
artist | Marvin Gaye |
album | Greatest Hits |
b-side | "I'm Crazy 'Bout My Baby" |
released | September 1963 |
format | 7" single |
recorded | July 17, 1963; Hitsville U.S.A.(Detroit, Michigan) |
genre | Soul, rock and roll |
length | 2:53 |
label | TamlaT 54087 |
writer | Holland–Dozier–Holland |
producer | Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier |
last single | "Pride and Joy"(1963) |
this single | "Can I Get a Witness"(1963) |
next single | "You're a Wonderful One"(1964) }} |
Category:1963 singles Category:Marvin Gaye songs Category:Songs written by Holland–Dozier–Holland Category:Motown singles
nn:Can I Get a WitnessThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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