Plural: Difference between revisions
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'''Plural''' is a grammatical category and a language universal. | '''Plural''' is a grammatical category and a language universal. | ||
In most languages it's directly opposed to the grammatical category of 'singular' but some languages have a third category, namely 'dualis'. | In most languages it's directly opposed to the grammatical category of '[[singular]]' but some languages have a third category, namely '[[dualis]]'. | ||
To put it simply: | To put it simply: | ||
Revision as of 18:04, 9 April 2007
Plural is a grammatical category and a language universal.
In most languages it's directly opposed to the grammatical category of 'singular' but some languages have a third category, namely 'dualis'.
To put it simply:
singular refers to 1 referent
dualis refers to 2 referents (especially for living creatures)
plural refers to more referents
Of course, that's too simple, because some singular words do refer to collections, groups, organisations and institutions [but considered as one entity: collective words] and some plural words do refer to one single referent.
In most languages the plural of words is marked in some way that makes it immediately clear to the audience that this category has been chosen.