Morphosyntax 1 – Lecture 5 – Nouns: countability, number
- typical noun suffixes:
-tion (and variants) education, relation, invasion, revision
-er, -or
camper, speaker, actor, supervisor
-ism
optimism, socialism, terrorism
-ity
mentality, normality, reality, sanity
-ment
environment, equipment, government
-ness
happiness, compactness, darkness
- 4 grammatical categories: number, gender, determination and case
Nouns
- common
- count
- concrete
- abstract
- non-count - concrete
- abstract
- proper
semantical view: concrete or abstract
grammatical view: count or non-count
Number - Singular(the unmarked form) or plural (regular or irregular)
Regular plural – pronunciation:
/iz/ - horse–horses
/z/ - day–days
/s/ - cat–cats
Spelling:
-s - mother–mothers
-es - box–boxes
-y→ -ies - spy–spies
-o→ -os/-oes – studios/heroes/buffalo(e)s
-es + doubling - quiz–quizzes
 Irregular plural
1. Voicing
knife ~ knives /naif/ ~ /naivz/
mouth ~ mouths /mauθ/ ~ /mauz/
2. Vowel change
foot~ feet
3. Zero plural
- some animals (sheep, deer, cod)
- nouns of quantity (4 million people)
4. Old English
ox ~ oxen
5. Foreign plurals
stimulus ~ stimuli
- see the list!!!

Nouns resistant to number contrast
Ordinarily singular
1. Proper nouns
2. Non-countable nouns such as cheese or solidarity can be plural when used to indicate
partition by quantity or quality
Abstract nouns in the plural indicate instances of the phenomenon concerned (as in
'many injustices') or intensification of the phenomenon (as in 'I must express my regrets').
3. The noun news and certain other items ending in -s:
a) nouns in -ics such as acoustics, physics
b) names of diseases such as mumps, shingles
c) words for some games such as billiards, dominoes, fives
however – politics is X politics are
4. Collective nouns such as committee, council, government, team
Ordinarily plural
1. Binary nouns such as binoculars
2. Aggregate nouns - refer to entities which comprise or may be perceived as
comprising an indefinite number of parts - may / may not be plural in form
- vacillation between singular and plural:
This barracks is/These barracks are heavily defended.
The data is/are insufficient.
The clergy is/are strongly opposed to divorce.