AJELLS: Vol. 5 No. 1, 2014
www.ezenwaohaetorc.org
A Syntactic Analysis of English Plural:
Implications for the Second Language User
of English
Bethel Azubuike
& Augustine U. Emela
Abstract
Pluralization in the English language presents a myriad of
problems to the chagrin of the second language user because
the formation of plural is fluid and emanates from the
etymology of the noun that is affected (word). Plural
formation in English has no definite format but for the use of
the bound morpheme/s/ which is attached to the common noun
that gains in the use of the plural marker. English has
enriched its vocabulary by very many languages adopting not
only the words but also their plural forms, hence the L2 user
of English is often at a loss of which plural markers to use.
This paper seeks to address the myriad of problems
encountered by the second language user of English in trying
to grapple with the various forms of the plural markers. The
sentences used must adhere to the forms of plural germane to
common nouns in English. The paper recommends that second
language users of English should spend sometime learning the
structure of the language. This is key to understanding the
morph- syntactic nature of the English language.
Introduction
Plurality in English is key as it affects the rules of grammar
not only in English but also in several world languages. In
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terms of agreement, the plural subject takes on the plural verb.
In most cases, the plural subject takes on a plural marker
whereas the plural verb has no visible suffix marking it.
Carnie writes:
We can slice the pie of English nouns apart
along several dimensions including plural vs.
singular, proper vs common, pronoun vs.
lexical noun and count vs. mass noun (49).
However, some nouns do not exhibit any marked features and
yet they remain inherently plural. Some of these nouns like
sheep, vermin, deer and clergy. He goes on to distinguish the
line of plurality within English nouns by positing that English
nouns can be singular or plural. He states that the distinction
between singular and plural is usually morphologically
marked with one of the plural endings. You will recall that we
had earlier stated that some nouns like vermin, clergy which
are inherently plural do not carry plural markers. Thus, an
English noun can be marked with the distinction [+ plural].
Again, Carnie writes that:
Closely related to the plural/singular distinction
is the count vs. mass noun distinction. Count
nouns represent individual “countable”
elements …‘mass nouns’ usually can’t be
counted in the same way… There are two easy
distributional tests to distinguish between mass
and count nouns. Mass nouns take the
quantifier much; count nouns take the
quantifier many (49).
This is the bane of many a second language user. You will
often hear:
* Sir we are much.
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* This classroom will not accommodate
us because we are much.
The point to underscore is that word(s) like people/students
will take the quantifier, many and not much; whereas things
like water, oil, sand will take the quantifier much (Azubuike
28).
Aronoff and Fudeman posit that:
The regular plural marker in
English has allomorphs –
voiceless alveolar fricative /s/,
voiced alveolar fricative /z/,
schwa plus voiced alveolar
fricative /z/ syllabic alveolar
nasal /∂z/ /or/ /iz/ /n/ /ø/ (46)
These three forms are heard when the plural marker –s is
added to a c8mmon noun. They go on to illustrate the
workings of these three forms using words like seats /s/ shades
/z/ hedges /∂z/, oxen /n/ and fish ø. There illustration is a
template to show that morphology and syntax are closely
related and that with the plural marker-s, we can realize /s/ /z/
/∂z/ or /Iz/. The point to underscore is that words that end with
the voiceless plosives /P, G K/ will veritably yield /s/ in their
articulation. These voiceless plosives are {p, t, k} as in cups
/kλps/, cat /kæts/ larks /la:ks/. The voiced plosives {b, d, g}
will yield /z/. These can be illustrated using words like cards
/ka:dz/ cabs /kæbz/ bags /bægz/. The nasals {m, n, ŋ} when
they end words and the plural marker-s is added to them, the
phonological realization is also /z/. This other class of {l, r, w,
j} when they occur at the end of the English nouns will also
yield /z/.
In the case of affricates {t∫} and {dʒ} the voiceless /t∫/ will
yield /∂z/ as we have in churches /tƷ:tiz/ and the voiced
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affricate judges /dʒΛdʒ∂z/ /dʒΛdʒ∂z/ will also yield /iz/or/∂z/
(see Azubuike (2012:10). It remains for us to say that there is
a close relationship between English plurals in terms
morphology, phonology and syntax. In terms of morphology
or any other, the English noun which is
+ count
+ common
can attract the – s or any other marker for plural. When it
attracts the – s plural marker which is a bound morpheme, it
satisfies the requirement for morphology. In terms of
phonology it has three plausible articulatory forms of /s/, /z/
and /∂z/. In syntax it pluralizes the noun and gives the
syntactic orientation of more than one and this has a further
syntactic import for the subject verb agreement. Carnie
therefore summarizes Plural Rule thus:
Noun
AGR – ST >
Count + > > =>
,
word
SYN Head
1 AGR NUM
PL
(468)
In a nutshell we shall try to decode the schema by
saying that what you pluralize must be a count noun by giving
it the requisite suffix marker for plural. It is a word considered
as a unit before it takes on the plural marker which has
syntactic relevance for agreement in number and plurality.
The lexicon in the speaker’s mind, while using
English, is the use of the -s marker for plural. It is his basic
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knowledge of English grammar especially in a second
language situation where plural forms are first taught, using
the–s, the–es, the ies and then the–en. Teachers at both
primary and secondary schools often teach these forms as
basic to English plurality. They will quickly add the zero ø
form such as sheep, cattle and deer. A good knowledge of
English grammar reveals that there are over ten forms by
which nouns gain in the use of plural in English (Azubuike
12). Our knowledge of Universal Grammar (UG) reveals that
“principles apply across all areas of language rather than to a
single construction and they are employed wherever they are
needed”. (Cook and Newson 8). It therefore follows by
extension that if a count noun is to be pluralized, the relevant
and appropriate suffix ending should be added to have
wellformedness or else it crashes at the logical form (LF
(some forms of English plural).There are many forms of
English plural known to the users of the language. The first
that is usually taught, learnt and imbibed is the–s marker.
– s as in books, boys, girls, chairs, etc.
-es as in churches, benches, clutches, etc.
You will notice that most words that end with the voiceless
affricate /t/ will always have – es in the plural, a condition
that is largely influenced by pronunciation to yield /∂z/.
- es as in flies, skies, babies, ladies. The –ies as a plural
marker usually occurs when the preceding letter to ‘Y’ is a
consonant that is if b, c, d, f, l, etc, come before the letter ‘Y’
the letter turns to –ies. (Rose and Purkis 98)
-en is found in very few words in English as in oxen, fixen
–ren can be found in brethren, children
– a can be found in words like datum- data, stratum –strata
-ae is found in latinate words for instance alga-algae;
formula-formulae
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-ice is found in words ending in x. For instance, appendixappendice, index-indice
- ice can also be found in words with –ouse. For instace,
louse-lice, mouse-mice, die-dice.
-X. There are words that form their plurals by using the letterx. They are largely words ending with –au. Examples include
bureau-bureaux, plateau –plateaux.
There is the –im suffix as in cherub – cherubim, seraphseraphim, Elo –Ehoim. These words that take on the –im
suffix are derived from Hebrew. In Hebrew, the –im is a
plural marker. Words from Hebrew that found their way into
English retain their plural forms
– i as a suffix is found in words like fungus-fungi, radius,
radii.
These words largely of Greek origin also retain their plural
forms. We can summarize this aspect of the paper thus:
1–s
boys, girls,
2 – es
churches, benches
3 – ies
babies, ladies
4–a
strata, data
5 –ae
formulae, algæ
6–i
fungi, radii
7 – ice
dice, mice, lice
8 – en
oxen
9 – ren
children
10 – ia
criteria, stadia
11 – im
cherubim, seraphim, Elohim
12 – x
plateaux, bureaux
13 -mutation (vowel change) men, women teeth, feet
14 −zero plural -clergy, cattle, deer, sheep
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There are other forms of plural with regard to uncountable
nouns. In things like water, oil, petrol, sand, air, we have other
forms in the sense that we can talk of:
a gallon of water
a litre of oil
a barrel of petrol
It is the gallon, litre, barrel that takes on the plural marker and
not the object (water, oil, petrol) that is measured or
pluralized. We can use numbers like:
Two
Three
Four
Gallons
Litres
Barrels
Of
Water
Oil
Petrol
Implications for Second Language Users
The point to underscore is that L2 users of English do not
often know the dynamics that are inherent in the formation of
plural markers in English. They are used to the –s –es –ies,-en,
-ren forms and the other forms are not properly taught and
learnt. The forms just listed are the ones fondly and largely
taught at schools by school teachers especially at primary and
secondary schools. The Use of English teacher at tertiary
schools often takes it for granted that the freshmen are well
grounded in the use of plurals before coming into the tertiary
institution. Errors in the use of English plural are rife in the
larger society. Some less educated persons are worse off in the
use of English plurals. An extreme case will be when we hear
words like in childrens, clergies and brethrens.
O’ Grady, Archibald, Katamba write that:
People, entities, concepts, animals and
so on are countable; they can be
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individuated and enumerated. To reflect
this, nouns and noun phrases in most
languages have the category of number.
This is typically realized through a
distinction between singular (i.e. one)
and plural (i.e. more than one) (259).
We had earlier reiterated this stance. His position is that
people can be counted in the sense that there are ten (10)
persons in the class. We can also say that there are five (5)
boys and five (5) girls in the class.
O’ Grady, Archibald and Katamba go on to say that:
Plural marking is not an entirely straight
forward matter. It has a number of
complications. First of all whereas
suffixation of –s to mark plural (as in
girls) is the norm, there are several
alternative irregular allomorphs of the
plural morpheme such as zero (i.e. no
overt marking) as in sheep, police and
clergy, - en as in oxen; i as in syllabi and
cacti and –a as in phenomena and stadia.
Secondly, there is not always a plural
form. There exist pluralia tantum nouns.
ie nouns which are always inflected with
the –s suffix that only occur in the plural
and lack a singular form (cf oats, thanks,
arrears, outskirt, multimedia and heebiejeebies) (259).
We note that when noun is uncountable it cannot head the NP
in which it is modified by cardinal numerals as we established
above in a bottle of water
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NP
PP
Art
a
N
P
bottle
NP
of
N
water
PP
Art
a
N
P
N
gallon
of
fuel
The allomorphy of English plurals are also phonologically
realized in three forms of - /s/ /z/ and /∂z/. This is to enhance
pronunciability
Fromkin, Rodman and Hyams (228)
A
B
C
D
cab
cap
bus
child
cad
cat
bush
ox
bag
back
buzz
mouse
They posit that words in column A have the final sound as /z/
which is voiced alveolar fricative. They hold that column B
has a plural ending which has the sound of /s/ which is a
voiceless alveolar fricative and that column C has /∂z/ which
enables us to pronounce the words when pluralized. They hold
that column D is off the mark because it has no regularity as
in columns A, B, C. They posit that “the plural forms in D –
children, oxen, nice, criteria and sheep are a hodge – podge of
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special cases that are memorized individually when you
acquire English”. They write that “whether natively or as a
second language. This is because there is no way to predict the
plural forms of these words. In a broad phonetic transcription
we have [kæt] [hæt] [ræt] [kæp]
[s]
rat
cap
s
[ræts]
[kæps]
cats hats
Morpheme
- S
Plural
[kæts] [ræts]
rats
s
cats
hats
[z]
bags
[bægz]
Words
[wordz]
cabs
[kæbz]
[∂z]
churches
[tƷ:t∂z]
cap
ss
cards
[kaidz]
Loves
[LΛvz]
judges
[dƷΛdƷ∂z ̸
glasses
[glas∂z ̸
We will observe that the (pa ta ka ba da ga) grammar plays
some role in providing the enabling environment in the
pronunciation of English plurals nay allomorphy. We have
used the word allomorphy so that not only English nouns are
affected but also the verbs in the third person singular as in
loves, hates, goes, cuts etc.
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The allomorph in English is an indication of the various forms
of pronunciations arising from the various forms of plurals
that can occur with the sibilant /s/. Fromkin, Rodman and
Hyams write that “These rules will derive the phonetic forms
–that is the pronunciations –of plurals for all regular nouns”
(29).
Conclusion
We have been able to adduce that the English language adopts
many and diverse forms in the pluralization of its nouns. We
postulate that these myriads of forms will pose problems to
second language users of English. The second language user
of English has the problem of learning the various forms
which for the most part will be cumbersome. It takes proper
teaching and learning for the user to be attuned to the various
forms.
Bethel Azubuike
Department of English & Literature,
Alvan Ikoku Federal College of Education, Owerri.
&
Augustine U. Emela
Department of English & Literary Studies,
Imo State University, Owerri.
Work Cited
Aronoff, Mark and Fuderman, Kirsten. What is Morphology.
Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
Azubuike, Bethel. Introduction to linguistics. Owerri: Celbez
Publishing Co. Nig, 2007.
_________ Grammar. Owerri: Celbez Publishing Co., 2012.
Carnie, Andrew. Syntax: Generative Introduction. Oxford:
Blackwell, 2007.
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AJELLS Vol. 5 No 1, 2014
Cook V.J and Newson, Mark. Chomsky’s Universal
Grammar. Oxford: Blackwell, 2009.
Fromkin, Victoria; Rodman, Robert and Hyams, Nina.
Introduction to Language. Oxford: Blackwell, 2011.
O’ Grady, William, Archibald, J and Katamba, Francis.
Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction, London:
Longman, 2012.
Radlord, Andrew.
Introduction, 1997.
Syntax: A Cambridge Minimalist
Radford, Andrew, Atkinson, M., Britain, David, Clashen,
Harold, and Spencer, Andrew. Linguistics: An Introduction.
Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 2002.
Rose, Andre and Purkis. Grammar. Ibadan: Spectrum, 1999.
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