Other isomophic groups of nouns:

Allomorphism:

There is some allomorphism, however, in the realisation of the meaning (and category) of number and quantity in some groups of nouns in the contrasted languages.

Among these are some collective nouns, which may be used in English both in singular and in plural (when the

constituent members of these collective nouns are meant). Cf: My family is small — My family are early risers. The crew has prepared the aircraft for the take off

— The crew are all young. Hence, in plural these collective nouns become nouns of multitude, as militia, police, cattle, having always, however, a singular meaning in Ukrainian (cf. вся родина зійшлася, поліція/міліція слідкує за порядком, etc.).

As to their stem-structure English and Ukrainian nouns are:

•simple-stem nouns (boy, girl, cat, dog, cock, pen, door; стіл, вовк, син, цап, чуб);

•derivative-stem nouns;

•compound nouns (airbus, headache, waterway; лісостепом, Неїжмак );

•composite nouns (take off, go-between,

•sister-in-law; мати-й-мачуха).

The category of number:

Isomorphic Singularia tantum nouns:

•(1) material/natural phenomena/products, cf. iron/залізо, snow/сніг, bread/хліб;

•(2) abstract notions/social phenomena/rational or emotional states, cf. beauty/краса, information/інформація, peace/мир, war/війна, happiness/щастя, grief/горе;

•(3) parts of the world, cf. the North/північ, the South/південь, the North-West/ північно-захід;

•(4) names of sciences and kinds of sport (in English

they are plural in form but singular in meaning), cf. physics/фізика, mathematics/математика, statistics/статистика, gymnastics/гімнастика.

Allomorphism:

Allomorphic are Ukrainian singularia tantum collective nouns formed with the help of suffixes:

(1)-ств-о/цтв-о (студентство/students, козацтво/kozaks etc.);

(2)-инн-я (картоплиння/potatoes, бобовиння/beans);

(3)-илл-я (бадилля/potato leaves, зілля/herbs);

(4)-в-а/в-ор-а (дітвора/children, мишва/mice, мурашва/ants);

(5)-от-а (парубота/chaps, біднота/poor people);

(6)-ин-а/-овин-а (ярина/spring crops, озимина/winter crops);

(7)-ник/няк (сливник/plum trees orchard, вишняк/cherry trees orchard);

(8)-н-я (офіцерня/officers, комарня/mosquitoes);

(9)-ур-а (професура/professors, мускулатура/muscles, адвокатура/lawyers).

Ukrainian singularia tantum nouns differ from the corresponding English

nouns not only grammatically, functioning both in singular and in plural, but also semantically, cf. nouns like офіцерня have some derogatory

connotations which cannot be rendered by the corresponding English nouns.

Isomorphic Pluralia tantum nouns:

•(1) summation names, cf. trousers/штани, spectacles/окуляри, leggings/легінси, scales/терези;

•(2) names of remnants, cf. scraps/покидьки, sweepings/зметини, leavings/недоїдки, siftings/недопитки;

•(3) some geographic names, cf. Athens/Афіни, the Netherlands/Нідерланди, the Alps/Альпи, the Carpathians/Карпати, the Bermudas/Бермуди etc.;

•(4) names of games, cf. cards/карти, drafts/дротики, drafts/шахи, skittles/кеглі (with the exception of billiards).

Allomorphism:

Allomorphic are some English pluralia tantum nouns denoting abstract (contents/зміст) and concrete notions (barracks/казарма, goods/товар, police/поліція, arms/зброя).

On the other hand, allomorphic are Ukrainian pluralia tantum nouns like вершки/сream, дріжджі/yeast, дрова/wood, гроші/money, фінанси/finance, проводи/seeing-off.

Neither has English equivalents of Ukrainian nouns like посиденьки, походеньки, побігеньки, витребеньки; вечірниці; ласощі, пустощі, гульбищі, прикрощі, мудрощі, ревнощі, скупощі, хвастощі, both for grammatical and semantic reasons.

Consequently, present-day Ukrainian seems to have a larger number of both the singularia and pluralia tantum nouns in some semantic classes of this part of speech, than the English language has.

The category of case of the English noun:

•The category of case in present-day English remains problematic as classical grammarians (O.Jespersen, V.Yartseva) recognize 2 case forms. John Searle recognizes 4 case forms. R.Quirk, S.Greenbaum, Leech recognize 2-case system – unmarked (common) and marked (genitive) case. I. Barkhudarov recognizes prepositional case forms. The Russian grammarian G. N. Vorontsova recognised no cases in English at all, since the -'s sign she treated as a postpositive particle expressing possession.

•The different points of view came into being because of the peculiar nature of the marker ʼs. Its function and the meaning itself is like that of inflexion when it is used with a single-form nouns. E.g. mother’s dinner, Nancy’s coming (ʼs is an inflexion).

•In some cases this marker has just a connective meaning and function. E.g. for pity’s sake, one finger’s end.

•The lack of inflexional meaning in such phrases as “the man I saw yesterday’s”, “the king of Denmark’s residence” is vivid.

The category of case of the Ukrainian noun:

•In Ukrainian the category of case finds its morphological expression through the system of inflexional markers, the form of which depends upon the declension group and partly on the gender of the noun. Ukrainian nouns

they may have 6 or 7 marked singular and plural oppositions in the nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative case. The case in Ukrainian expresses the relations of the noun to other parts of the sentence.

•But in analytical languages with reduced case systems or with no cases at all relational case notions are rendered analytically by means of syntactical and lexico- syntactical devices.