- •1)The study of lang from : lexicology, phonetics, grammar
- •2)Basic units of language and speech
- •3)Parts of speech classification. Meaning, form, function
- •4)Notional words, modal words, form words, the interjection, words of affirmation and negation
- •3. Form-Words
- •5) The verb definition and its grammatical meaning
- •7) Finite, Non-finite verbs
- •8)The lexical(semantic) class: Terminative(non)
- •9)Lexico-syntactical clas. (notional), (semi-notional : link, modal, auxiliary, verbs-substitutes)
- •10) Syntactical clas. (subjective, objective, transitive, intransitive)
- •12)The category of person
- •13) The category of number
- •14) The category of tense. Six tense-aspect forms
- •15) The category of aspect. The continuous and the common aspect. Semantic view of this phenomenon. (Kennedy, Curma). Verbs which are not used in the continuous aspect (5 groups)
- •16) The category of correlation(Perfect Forms). The Perfect as a : tense, aspect category, as a way of expressing the category of « time relation»
- •17) The category of voice
- •18) The problem of other voices ( reflexive, reciprocal, middle)
- •19) The category of Mood. Definition. Ways of expressing modality. Conceptions of the mood systems
- •20)The Indicative Mood
- •21)The Imperative. Its morphological peculiarities. Non-recognition of the imperative mood. The problem of the «let us go» type
- •22)Oblique moods. Different points of view.
- •23) The Verbals. The double character of the infinitive, the gerund, participle
- •24)Secondary predication and predicative constructions with the verbals
- •25)The Noun. Definition, gram.Categories, kinds (proper, common)
- •26)The problem of Gender (generic notion)
- •27) The category of number
- •28) The category of case. Different approaces.
27) The category of number
Number is a grammatical category of the English noun, which shows whether we speak of one substance or more than one. This grammatical meaning of the category of number is expressed by the opposition of two grammatical number forms: the singular form and the plural form. This opposition is true of many nouns: table - tables, man — men, etc. But if we compare such two phrases as four tables and four minutes we may see that in the first case we really deal with four separate substances. Thus, the opposition one table and four tables is that of the opposition of one and more than one. But in the case of four minutes it is rather a certain duration of time that we deal with but not four separate substances as in the case of tables.
If we take such nouns as colour and colours or custom and customs the difference in lexical meaning develops to such a degree that it overshadows the grammatical meaning of the category of number. That is why we may say that in such cases we deal with the lexicalization of the grammatical meaning of the plural form, the result of which is the existence of two homonymous words.
As for the grammatical opposition of the singular and the plural forms in English the form of the singular is a bare stem with the zero inflection whereas the plural number is built up by means of the inflection -s for the majority of cases.
Compound nounsusually present difficulties in building up the plural form. A compound noun consists of two or more stems (root-morphemes).
There are several ways of forming the plural number in compound nouns:
1. In compound nouns usually the head-noun takes the plural form (fellow-workers, school-mates, air-raids, editors-in-chief, brothers-in-law).
2. In compound nouns expressing generic notions the plural inflexion as a rule is added to the second element which is usually a noun (she-wolves, lady-birds, tom-cats, billy-goats, cock-sparrows).
3. In a compound noun consisting of a verb and a noun the plural inflection is added to a noun (pick-pockets).
4. a compound noun does not contain any noun, the plural is formed by adding the inflexion -s to the last word (forget-me-nots, merry-go-rounds, hold-alls, overalls).
5. If the first part of compound nouns is the word man or woman both stems are changed (men-servants, women-journalists).
While speaking about the category of number we may also consider the nouns which have no usual two numbered forms, but mav be found in one of them. The nouns which have only the plural form are termed Pluralia Tantum, while the nouns which have only the singular form are called Singularia Tantum.
Among the pluralia tantum there are nouns of two types:
1. Nouns denoting material objects consisting of two similar halves: scissors, trousers, spectacles, scales, eye-glasses, tongs.
2. Nouns which have collective meaning: concrete or abstract.
a) Concrete: stairs, goods, eaves, slums, outskirts, tropics, memoirs, victuals, supplies, clothes, sweepings, slops, presents, parings, sweets, lodgings, suburbs.
b) Abstract: holidays, tidings, goings-on, earnings, contents, wages (also wage), surroundings, doings, politics, tactics, gymnastics, athletics.
The nouns of singular number (Singularia Tantum) are usually called uncountable or mass-nouns. Here belong:
a) Concrete nouns:
1. Names of materials: water, milk, wine, snow, bread, beer, honey, paper, an; butter.
2. Some collective nouns -.foliage, leafage, shrubbery, brushwood, linen, machineiy, furniture, timber.
b) Abstract nouns: friendship, joy, patriotism, love, kindness, weather, courage, information, progress, advice, confusion, noise, laughter, pleasure, beauty.