Лекции по теоретической грамматике английского языка. Тивьяева И.В. - 26 стр.

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that it can go into right-hand and left-hand connections with practically all parts of

speech. That is why practically all parts of speech but the verb can act as noun

determiners

. However, the most common noun determiners are considered to be

articles, pronouns, numerals, adjectives and nouns themselves in the common and

genitive case.

2. The category of number

The grammatical category of number is the linguistic representation of the

objective category of quantity. The number category is realized through the

opposition of two form-classes: the plural form :: the singular form.

There are different approaches to defining the category of number. Thus,

some scholars believe that the category of number in English is restricted in its

realization because of the dependent implicit grammatical meaning of

countableness/uncountableness. The category of number is realized only within

subclass of countable nouns, i.e. nouns having numeric (discrete) structure.

Uncountable nouns have no category of number, for they have quantitative

(indiscrete) structure. Two classes of uncountables can be distinguished: singularia

tantum (only singular) and pluralia tantum (only plural). M. Blokh, however, does

not exclude the singularia tantum subclass from the category of number. He calls

such forms absolute singular forms comparable to the ‘common’ singular of

countable nouns.

In Indo-European languages there are lots of nouns that don’t fit into the

traditional definition of the category based on the notion of quantity. A word can

denote one object, but it has the plural form. Or a noun can denote more than one

thing, but its form is singular. There is a definition of the category of number that

overcomes this inconsistency. It was worked out by prof. Isachenko. According to

him, the category of number denotes marked and unmarked discreteness (not

quantity). A word in a singular form denotes unmarked discreteness whether it is a

book, or a sheep, or sheep. If an object is perceived as a discrete thing, it has the

form of the plural number. Thus, trousers and books are perceived as discrete

object whereas a flock of sheep is seen as a whole. This definition is powerful