You tell them one or two items of news.[11] «It is a very strange piece ofbusiness!» Iadded… [2]»… I'd like to give you a little piece of advice.» [24] She gave me one piece of intelligence,which affected me very much… [10]
2. Sometimes material nouns and abstract nouns are used in the plural with emphatic force:
The frozen snows of the Arctic; thesands of the Sahara Desert; the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea; a thousand thanks;a thousand pities.
The thundersbellowed over the wild waste of waters, and were echoed and prolonged by the mountain waves. [13]
«Thanks. A thousand and one thanks.[19] Far off, rising in an immense slope…Etna soars towards the heavens, sending from the summit, on which the snowsstill linger, a steady plume of ivory smoke. [13]»… it would be a thousand pitiesto throw away such a chance of fun.» [2] Far below…I heard the «unseen tumbling of the waters.[23] «A thousand pardons?»[10] At sleepy intervals the surf flung its foam across the sandsto the grass… [7]
3. A number of nouns which express both singular and plural (countable) may with a change of meaning are used only in the singular (thus becoming uncountable). This is the case:
a) When the name of an animal is used to denote its flesh used as food:
A fat brown goose lay at one end of the table… [11] (a countable noun) – While Gabriel and Miss Daly exchanged plates of goose and plates of ham and spiced beef, Lily went from guest to guest… [11] (an uncountable noun) Two white swans came majestically by… [21] (a countable noun) «I have n-never eaten roast swan b-before,» I stammered… [24] (an uncountable noun)
b) When the names of trees are used to indicate the corresponding kind of wood as material or as live plants:
And among the oaksthe bluebells stood in pools of azure… [22] (a countable noun) – «Oak»,he exclaimed. «All carved oak,right up the ceiling…» [11] (an uncountable noun)… beautiful woods of birch, fir,and pinecast their shadows through the carriage window as we speed along. [19] (an uncountable noun)… a narrow strip of larchand beech…stretched out towards the valley… [21] (uncountable nouns)… I come into alane, which winds upwards between grassy slopes to… woods of noble beech. [21] (an uncountable noun)
c) When the nouns tree, bush, twig, etc. do not indicate separate objects but an indivisible whole (compare with the meaning of such nouns as leafage, blossom, brushwood, also with the Russian листва, цвет, кустарник– собирательныесуществительные):
It (the tree) was covered with young blossoms,pink and twhite…; and on this entire blossom!The sunlight glistened. [21] (1. a countable noun; 2. an uncountable noun) – … the may-flower,both pink and white, was in full bloom. [21] (a countable noun)… an old orchard of apple-trees just breaking into flower,stretched down to a stream and a long wild meadow. [21] (an uncountable noun)… a few gold leavesare still hanging… [21] (a countable noun) The apple-tree was in leaf,and all but in flower– its crimson buds just bursting. [7] (uncountable nouns) In that early spring a few budswere showing already. [7] (a countable noun) – He leaned against one of the satin-smooth stems, under the lacery of twigand bud. [7] (uncountable nouns)
d) When the name of an object is used to denote substance, that is, when it becomes the name of a material:
The summits of these vast mountains were enveloped in clouds…[1] (a countable noun)… the sky was lined with a uniform sheet of dripping cloud…[9] (an uncountable noun) Gemmy… presently returned with an eggbeaten up in milk. [22] (a countable noun) – Eggis on your coat, (an uncountable noun) A load that lay on Hood's mind like a rock suddenly rose like an eagle… [9] (a countable noun) – Grass ceases to grow, and the track is almost lost to view among piles of loose slate rock.[20] (an uncountable noun)
The plural forms developed (some of them lose) in connection with a change of meaning of the noun. The cases are following: a number of nouns in English which are used only in the singular may through a change or variation of meaning acquire the forms of both numbers, singular and plural, sometimes material nouns and abstract nouns are used in the plural with emphatic force, a number of nouns which express both singular and plural (countable) may with a change of meaning are used only in the singular.
3. Modes and means of expression grammatical meaning of number in Russian language
The categories of number form one opposition – singular and plural. Russian language hasn’t special forms, which express only meaning of number. Six cases forms express each of two meaning of number. Forms of case – it simultaneously forms of gender and nouns.
Compare: sing. – лес, леса, лесу, лес, лесом, о лесе; pl. – леса, лесов, лесам, леса, лесами, о лесах1.
The inflexion of nouns emerges as indicator of number express simultaneously grammatical meaning of gender (singular) and case.
In separate groups of name of nouns opposite singular and plural number express with the help of suffixes – я, – овья, – ec, which is additional grammatical means, because it emerge together with the inflexion: зять – зя[тя], князь – кня[зя], сын – сын-о[вья], небо – неб-ес-а,…
In nouns with compound suffix – ан/ин (-ян/ин), чан/чин, which express meaning together with inflexion, in plural this suffix is absent and meaning of number express only with the help of inflexion: граждан/ин/Ø – граждан/е, северян/ин/Ø – северян/е,…
In names of animals’ baby singular number express with the help of suffix – онок (-енок), which in plural interchange with suffix – ат-а(-ят-а): буйволёнок – буйволята, скворчонок – скворчата, страусёнок – страусята…
Correlations in the names of children meet seldom: казачонок – казачата, батрачонок – батрачата, барчонок – барчата. In the names of mushrooms more seldom: опёнок – опята, маслёнок – маслята.
Interchange consonants and transference of stress used for generated of form of number by way of additional means.
Compare: 1) друг – дру[зья] (г-з'); ухо – уши (х-ш); клин – клинья (н-н'). 2) место-места, местам, местами, о местах.
In such a way, meaning of number express syntactically, that is to say with the help of inner resources of word: inflexions, suffixes, interchange of consonants, stress. Used more analytical means – forms agreement.
Compare: забавныйлисёнок – забавныелисята, моёухо – моиуши, летитгусь – летятгуси.
Just analytically (syntactically) express the category of number – indeclinable nouns, which haven’t their inflexion.
Compare: красивое кашне – красивые кашне, кафе закрыто – все кафе были закрыты. Separate words have suppletive forms of number: человек – люди, ребёнок – дети.
Figurative used forms of the category of nouns.
Used form of singular number meet often in the meaning of plural number. Example: Речь идет о настоятельной необходимости создать для детей новую, советскую, социалистическую популярно-научную и художественно яркую книгу. В поездке мы встретились с широким массовым зрителем наших национальных республик.
Forms of plural number in the meaning of singular used in oral speech (вуниверситетахнеучился, институтовнекончал) it is have in view one university and one institute.
3.1 Nouns Used Only in the Singular
Nouns which have only singularform and not used in plural belong to a group «Singularia Tantum». They are:
1. Uncountable nouns of material, substance (oil, butter, milk, sugar, water, petroleum, steel, copper, wood, ice, gold…) In plural such nouns denote different sorts of material. When denoting a certain object they may have both singular and plural.
2. Collective nouns (youth, the students, spruce forest)
3. Abstract nouns (whiteness, cleanness, laziness, kindness, thinness, enthusiasm, rush, mowing, walking, heat, dampness, thaw…)
4. Proper names. These words get plural form if they used nominally or denote group of people which have the same surname (gender of Tolstoy).
Proper names denoting unique objects (sun, moon…)
Some abstract nouns are used in English only in the singular whereas in Russian the corresponding nouns are used in both numbers (information, advice, news, knowledge…) «This news is pleasant» To indicate concrete instances of information or advice the words «piece», «item» are used «It was the most interesting item of information»
3.2 Nouns Used Only in the Plural
Nouns which have only plural form and not used in singular belong to a group «Plularia Tantum». They are:
1. The names of things which consist of two similar halves (scissors, trousers, spectacles, scales (весы), eye-glasses, tongs (щипцы), gates…) «Your spectacles are on the table»
2. The names of some games (chees, hide-and-seek, blind man’s buff…)
3. Denotation of some distance (holidays, day, workdays, twilight…)
4. The names of some mass of substance (pasta, perfume, ink, yeast…)
5. Proper names which connected with first collective meaning (Alps, Carpathians…)
The categories of number form one opposition – singular and plural. Russian language hasn’t special forms, which express only meaning of number. Forms of case – it simultaneously forms of gender and nouns. Meaning of number express syntactically, that is to say with the help of inner resources of word: inflexions, suffixes, interchange of consonants, stress. If we compare the category of number in English and Russian, Russian noun, as well as English nouns, can be subdivided into groups – nouns used only in the singular (uncountable nouns of material, substance; collective nouns; abstract nouns; proper names) and nouns used only in the plural (the names of things which consist of two similar halves; the names of some games; denotation of some distance; the names of some mass of substance; proper names which connected with first collective meaning.
Modern English like most other languages distinguishes two numbers: singular and plural. The meaning of singular and plural seems to be self-explanatory, that is the opposition: one – more than one. The essential meaning of the category (in nouns) is not that of quantity, but of discreteness. Concrete meanings of nouns can be expressed lexically with the help of numerals and grammatically through grammatical meaning of inflexions. A zero inflexion indicates one thing and the grammatical form with an opposite inflexion indicates more than one things. There are several types of number: singular versus plural, collective versus singulativ, dual number, trial number and distributive plural. As has already been mentioned Modern English like most other languages distinguishes only two numbers: singular and plural. A zero inflexion indicates one thing and the grammatical form with an opposite inflexion indicates more than one things. In Modern English the form of the singular of nouns is a bare stem without any flexion or with zero inflexion. Nouns in plural are characterized by ending «-s (-es)». According this there are several ways of the pronunciation of the inflexion – (e) s at the end of the word, also there are several peculiarities in spelling. Some nouns are survivals of Old English plural forms; they form the plural. In many instances where the form in – s is used it may be understood either as the plural form of the common case or as the plural possessive. Some nouns have one form for both singular and plural. Some nouns are partly survivals of the Old English and Latin uninflected plurals, partly forms which came to be used by the analogy of the old unchanged plurals. Some nouns keep the plural form of the language (Latin, French or Greek) from which they have been borrowed. The most general quantitative characteristics of individual words constitute the lexico-grammatical base for dividing the nounal vocabulary as a whole into countable nouns and uncountable nouns. The nouns which have only a plural and no singular are usually termed «pluralia tantum», and those which have only a singular and no plural are termed «singularia tantum». In some cases the plural form of the noun does not express were pluralities but acquire a special meaning, some nouns have double plurals used with some difference of meaning. The plural forms developed (some of them lose) in connection with a change of meaning of the noun. The cases are following: a number of nouns in English which are used only in the singular may through a change or variation of meaning acquire the forms of both numbers, singular and plural, sometimes material nouns and abstract nouns are used in the plural with emphatic force, a number of nouns which express both singular and plural (countable) may with a change of meaning are used only in the singular. As for category of number Russian nouns – Russian language hasn’t special forms, which express only meaning of number. Forms of case – it simultaneously forms of gender and nouns. Meaning of number express syntactically, that is to say with the help of inner resources of word: inflexions, suffixes, interchange of consonants, stress. If we compare the category of number in English and Russian, Russian noun, as well as English nouns, can be subdivided into groups – nouns used only in the singular (uncountable nouns of material, substance; collective nouns; abstract nouns; proper names) and nouns used only in the plural (the names of things which consist of two similar halves; the names of some games; denotation of some distance; the names of some mass of substance; proper names which connected with first collective meaning).
Bibliography
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