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plural
Also known as pl
In many languages, a plural (sometimes abbreviated as pl., pl, ', or '), is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This default quantity is most commonly one (a form that represents this default quantity of one is said to be of singular number). Therefore, plurals most typically denote two or more of something, although they may also denote fractional, zero or negative amounts. An example of a plural is the English word boys, which corresponds to the singular boy.
AI overview
A plural is a grammatical form used in many languages to indicate that a noun refers to more than one thing, rather than just one. For instance, in English, "boys" is the plural form of "boy," and while plurals typically represent two or more of something, they can sometimes represent zero, fractional, or even negative amounts depending on context.
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Described at
In languages where noun phrases are pluralized using a specific function word (pluralizer), this function word is tagged DET and Number=Plur is its lexical feature. [sl] singular glas “voice”, dual glasova “voices”, plural glasovi “voices” [ar] singular سَنَةٌ sanatun “year”, dual سَنَتَانِ sanatāni “years”, plural سِنُونَ sinūna “years”. A greater paucal noun denotes “more than several but not many” persons, animals or things. It occurs in Sursurunga, an Austronesian language. A greater plural noun denotes “many, all possible” persons, animals or things. Precise semantics varies across languages. Inverse number means non-default for that particular noun. (Some nouns are by default assumed to be singular, some dual or plural.) Occurs e.g. in Kiowa. [kio] ę́:dè sân khópdɔ́: “This child is sick.” (basic, singular) [kio] ę́:dè sân ę̀khópdɔ́: “These two children are sick.” (basic, dual) [kio] ę́:gɔ̀ są̂:dɔ̀ èkhópdɔ́: “These children are sick.” (inverse, plural) In Bulgarian and Macedonian, this form is known variously as “counting form”, “count plural” or “quantitative plural” (Sussex and Cubberley 2006, p. 324). (The form originates in the Proto-Slavic dual but it should not be marked Number=Dual because 1. the dual vanished from Bulgarian and 2. the form is no longer semantically tied to the number two.) Other languages (e.g., Russian) have forms that are not necessarily related to dual, yet they are used exclusively with numerals. Some nouns appear only in the plural form even though they denote one thing (semantic singular); some tagsets mark this distinction. Grammatically they behave like plurals, so Plur is obviously the back-off value here; however, if the language also marks gender, the non-existence of singular form sometimes means that the gender is unknown. In Czech, special type of numerals is used when counting nouns that are plurale tantum (NumType = Sets). Sussex, Roland and Cubberley, Paul. 2006. The Slavic Languages. Cambridge University Press.
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Wikidata facts
~12 min read
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Use in systems of grammatical number
- Formation of plurals
- Plural forms of other parts of speech
- Nouns lacking plural or singular form
- Usage of the plural
- POS tagging
- See also
- Notes
- Further reading
- External links
In many languages, a plural (sometimes abbreviated as pl., pl, ', or '), is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This default quantity is most commonly one (a form that represents this default quantity of one is said to be of singular number). Therefore, plurals most typically denote two or more of something, although they may also denote fractional, zero or negative amounts. An example of a plural is the English word boys, which corresponds to the singular boy.
Words of other types, such as verbs, adjectives and pronouns, also frequently have distinct plural forms, which are used in agreement with the number of their associated nouns.