Xxv Number Definition In English Grammar Pdf Download Free !!EXCLUSIVE!! Download

In linguistics, grammatical number is a feature of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more").[1] English and other languages present number categories of singular or plural, both of which are cited by using the hash sign (#) or by the numero signs "No." and "Nos." respectively. Some languages also have a dual, trial and paucal number or other arrangements.

The word "number" is also used in linguistics to describe the distinction between certain grammatical aspects that indicate the number of times an event occurs, such as the semelfactive aspect, the iterative aspect, etc. For that use of the term, see "Grammatical aspect".

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Most languages of the world have formal means to express differences of number. One widespread distinction, found in English and many other languages, involves a simple two-way number contrast between singular and plural (car/cars, child/children, etc.). Discussion of other more elaborate systems of number appears below.

Not all languages have number as a grammatical category. In those that do not, quantity must be expressed either directly, with numerals, or indirectly, through optional quantifiers. However, many of these languages compensate[clarification needed] for the lack of grammatical number with an extensive system of measure words.

In most languages with grammatical number, nouns, and sometimes other parts of speech, have two forms, the singular, for one instance of a concept, and the plural, for more than one instance. Usually, the singular is the unmarked form of a word, and the plural is obtained by inflecting the singular. This is the case in English: car/cars, box/boxes, man/men. There may be exceptional nouns whose plural form is identical to the singular form: one sheep/two sheep (which is not the same as nouns that have only one number).

Some languages differentiate between an unmarked form, the collective, which is indifferent in respect to number, and a marked form for single entities, called the singulative in this context. For example, in Welsh, moch ("pigs") is a basic form, whereas a suffix is added to form mochyn ("pig"). It is the collective form which is more basic, and it is used as an adjectival modifier, e.g. cig moch ("pig meat", "pork"). The collective form is therefore similar in many respects to an English mass noun like "rice", which in fact refers to a collection of items which are logically countable. However, English has no productive process of forming singulative nouns (just phrases such as "a grain of rice"). Therefore, English cannot be said to have a singulative number.

The distinction between a "singular" number (one) and a "plural" number (more than one) found in English is not the only possible classification. Another one is "singular" (one), "dual" (two) and "plural" (more than two).

Dual number existed in all nouns and adjectives of Proto-Indo-European around 4000 BCE, and was inherited in some form in many of its prehistoric, protohistoric, ancient, and medieval descendents. Only in rare cases has it persisted in Indo-European languages to the modern day. It survived in Proto-Germanic only in the first and second person pronouns, where it was then inherited by Old English, Old High German, Old Low German, Early Old Swedish, Old Norwegian, Old Icelandic, and Gothic. It continued in Icelandic until the 1700s, some dialects of Faroese until at least the late 1800s, and some dialects of North Frisian through the 1900s.[6][7] From Proto-Greek it entered Ancient Greek,[8][9] and from Proto-Indo-Iranian it entered Sanskrit.[10][11] From Proto-Slavic, it still exists today in Slovene and the Sorbian languages.[12]

Many Semitic languages also have dual number. For instance, in Arabic all nouns can have singular, plural, or dual forms. For non-broken plurals, masculine plural nouns end with -n and feminine plural nouns end with -t, whilst -n, is added to the end of a noun to indicate that it is dual (even among nouns that have broken plurals).

The dual may be restricted to certain morphological categories. For example, in North Saami, in possessive forms the possessor has three numbers (singular, dual, plural) whereas the noun possessed only has two (singular, plural).

The trial number denotes exactly three items. Examples of its usage are usually only found in pronouns and bound person agreement markers. In contrast to remnant words of Old English's dual case like both and neither, English has never had a trial case and no traces of it can be found. More broadly, Indo-European languages do not have a trial. However, trial pronouns have found their way into the Melanesian English creole languages of Tok Pisin,[18] Bislama,[19] and Pijin.[20] These languages are Austronesian-influenced, which is one of only a few language families where trials can be found.[21] Austronesian languages exhibiting trial pronouns include Larike[22] and the Oceanic languages of Mussau, Raga, and Anejom.[23] Lihir even has distinct pronouns for trial and paucal.[24]

The quadral number denotes exactly four items. Apparent examples of its use are essentially entirely confined to pronouns, and specifically those in the languages of Oceania or in sign languages. It has been contested whether the quadral has truly ever existed; only some classifications of grammatical number accept it as extant.

The quadral has been claimed to exist as a regular feature in the pronoun systems of several Austronesian languages, most famously Sursurunga,[40] Tangga,[41][42] and Marshallese.[43][44] These languages all have a five-way distinction in grammatical number, which has been claimed to be singular/dual/trial/quadral/plural. However, it has been noted by Greville Corbett that in all three cases, it is also possible to use the supposed quadral to refer to more than four. In Sursurunga, the "trial" actually refers to groups of three or four, or nuclear families of any size; the "quadral" is used for groups of four or more, or for two or more dyads. The Sursurunga grammatical number distinction has thus instead been categorized as singular/dual/paucal/greater paucal/plural. Tangga, as a closely related language, seems similar, although data is sparser. In Marshallese, the trial seems to only indicate exactly three. While the apparent quadral can mean exactly four, it also has an alternate rhetorical use in speeches to larger groups in order to impart a sense of individual intimacy.[45] However, there is not consensus that this alternate use means Marshallese does not truly have a quadral; the final 2016 reference grammar of Marshallese by Byron W. Bender, a linguist whose expertise was the language, still refers to it as having a quadral.[44]

In some languages with a singular/dual/trial/plural pronoun system, the plural forms are etymologically related to the number four. This has led to suggestions or assertions that historically a true quadral did exist, but it has since morphed into a plural form. This has been claimed for Tolai,[51] Konomala, Patpatar, Kandas, Siar,[52] Tabar, Label, Gao, Kwamera,[41] Kawe, Wauyai, Matbat,[53] Larike,[54] Wamesa,[55] Ambai,[56] Loniu,[57] Badeng,[47] and Paluai.[58] It has thus been hypothesized that the quadral existed in Proto-Oceanic[52] and Proto-Southern Vanuatu.[59]

The quintal number denotes exactly five items. Apparent examples of its use can mostly only be found in pronouns of sign languages. Like the quadral, its existence has been contested, and only some classifications accept it.

The validity has been debated of categorizing sign language pronouns as having a quadral or a quintal. Linguist Susan McBurney has contended that American Sign Language has a true dual, but that the trial, quadral, and quintal should instead be classified as numeral incorporation rather than grammatical number. This is motivated by the dual marker handshape being distinct from the handshape for the numeral two, in contrast to higher number markers; the ability to also incorporate these numerals into other words, including those for times and amounts; and the use of markers higher than the dual not being obligatory, with replacement by the plural being acceptable. There was not enough data available to McBurney to argue whether or not these reasons equally applied to other sign languages.[75] Linguist Raquel Veiga Busto has argued they do not equally apply to Catalan Sign Language, and has applied the terms quadral and quintal to the language's pronouns for convenience without taking an official stance as to whether they are grammatical number or numeral incorporation.[76] A third model is to categorize the apparent trial/quadral/quintal forms as "cardinal plurals", or forms of the grammatical plural number where the number of people is specified.[77] Other authors have treated these concepts as perfectly equivalent, referring to pronoun numeral incorporation while still applying the terms quadral and quintal.[72][73]

There are also cases of sign language pronouns indicating specific numbers of referents above five. Ugandan Sign Language has a rare pronoun form for exactly six people.[72] Some American Sign Language speakers have incorporated numerals up to nine into inclusive pronouns upon solicitation.[78] Israeli Sign Language theoretically has the grammatical ability to incorporate numerals up to ten into pronouns.[79]

The paucal number represents 'a few', a small inexactly numbered group of referents. It can be found in Hopi, Warlpiri, Lower Sepik-Ramu languages,[80] some Oceanic languages including Fijian,[81] Motuna,[82] Serbo-Croatian,[83] and in Arabic for some nouns. The paucal number has also been documented in some Cushitic languages of Ethiopia, including Baiso, which marks singular, paucal, plural.[84] When paucal number is used in Arabic, it generally refers to ten or fewer instances. ff782bc1db