Introducing English Linguistics

Word classes and phrases
English syntax
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the plural: singular goose, for instance, becomes plural geese. Typically, the
examples in this category preserve forms going back to Old English: -en
ended a number of nouns during this era; the vowel changes, resulting
from the process of umlauting, were common too. Number can also be
marked by:
•
Singular and plural forms borrowed from other languages. The end-
ings on singular criteri
on and plural criteria, for instance, were bor-
rowed into English from Ancient Greek. Sometimes borrowings of this
type will have both regular and irregular forms: concerto was borrowed
into English from Italian and can either be pluralized with English -s
(concertos) or Italian -i (concerti). Sometimes borrowed forms have lost
their foreign suffix and become a regular English plural: although
gymnasium was borrowed from Latin, it is more common to see gymna-
siums than gymnasia.
•
No overt plural markers at all (e.g. one deer, two deer). Occasionally,
nouns in this category will have a regular plural form too. For
instance, biologists often use fishes rather than fish.
•
No singular, but only a plural form (e.g. scissors but not *scissor). These
forms are generally found on objects having two parts, such as the
two blades on a pair of scissors, or the two legs on a pair of pants.
There are also non-count nouns, which make no distinction between a
singular or plural form. Thus, it is possible to talk of furniture – which
would include a group of items, such as chairs, couches, beds, etc. – but
not *furnitures. Some nouns have both count and non-count forms. In the
first example below, water is a non-count noun, since it is being used to
describe a liquid of unknown quantity:
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INTRODUCING ENGLISH LINGUISTICS