Collective number
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In linguistics, collective number is a number referring to a set of things. All languages possess some way to express the collective number; however, only certain languages grammaticize this feature to the extent that it is morphologically productive. Languages that have this feature can use it to express a phrase like 'flock of sheep' by casting the lexeme 'sheep' in the collective number.
Other languages have mechanisms for deriving collective nouns from standard nouns. Still others must typically resort to phrasing to express collectives.
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[edit] Morphological Collectives
Welsh has two systems of grammatical number. Singular/plural nouns correspond to the singular/plural number system of English. Welsh noun plurals are unpredictable and formed in several ways: by adding a suffix to the end fo the word (usually -au), e.g. tad and tadau, through vowel mutation, e.g. bachgen and bechgyn, or through a combination of the two, e.g. chwaer and chwiorydd.
The other system of number is the collective/unit system. The nouns in this system form the singular by adding the suffix -yn (for masculine nouns) or -en (for feminine nouns) to the plural. Most nouns which belong in this system are frequently found in groups, for example, plant "children" and plentyn "a child", or coed "forest" and coeden "a tree". In dictionaries, the plural is often given first.
Some languages have collectives but no grammatical plural. For example, Chinese, Japanese (except in a small number of cases), and Korean do not have plurals. However, groups of people can be referred to, either by context or periphrastically (i.e., with additional words or phrases).
An example from Japanese:
- Tanaka-san "Mr/Ms Tanaka"
- Tanaka-san-tachi "The Tanakas", "Tanaka & Co.", "Tanaka and friends", etc.
[edit] Derivational Collectives
Derivation accounts for many collective words. Because derivation is a slower and less productive word formation process than the more overtly syntactical morphological methods, there are fewer collectives formed this way. As with all derived words, derivational collectives often differ semantically from the orinal words, acquiring new connotations and even new denotations.
The English endings -age and -ade often signify a colletive. Sometimes the relationship is easily recognizable: baggage, drainage, blockade. However, even though the etymology is plain to see, the derived words take on quite a special meaning.
German uses the prefix Ge- to create collectives. The root word often undergoes ablaut and suffixation as well as receiving the Ge- prefix. Nearly all nouns created in this way are of neuter gender. Examples include:
- das Gebirge, "group of mountains," from der Berg, "mountain"
- das Gepäck, "luggage, baggage" from packen, "to pack, bundle"
- das Geflügel, "fowl, poultry" from der Flug, "flight"
- das Gedicht, "poem" from dichten, "to verse"
[edit] Lexical Collectives
Most languages have some words that are collective by definition, i.e., "pork," "fowl," "garbage," "rubbish," and the names of most fluids in English. Words like this are always uncountable. Many otherwise countable words can be expressed in a collective sense; this is especially true of food in English; however, the amount can be specified through the use of a collective modifier ("much/a lot of," "a little") or a unit ("piece," "molecule," "pound").
