砲柴PX
袋
N魯
陥y is
One'sる
新
う
cialP
て￨せ
The myste]7 0fSingular or plural
By Shigekatsu Yamauchi
Spedal to The Daily Yonlluri
N靭
鑑
翻
嵩 挺 ま麒
群
:
single simple English sentence.Thぬ has nothing to
do with any unutt properttes specttcto these par―
位cular words,either.To attempt to exactly translate
ths hto English,we are stuck with saying,“
There
'mleSS We have knowledge ofthe
iS/are(a)dOg(s)ず
context which allows us to specify the number of
dogs.
Plurals泣 l English seem to follow a slmple rule:
Add``s"to a noun to create the pluraL Butthis basic
rule has many exceptions_When you have IIIore
tha■ one`〔ch工d"you IIIust say``children,''ihstead
of“childs."Mictt is a mouse,but he alld Minllie are
``mice,"IIot“
'1血
mouses。
d there are a llttber of
words that never get the“s"regardless OfI11lTnber,
lar and Plural,unllecessary complications,which
could be eliminated with a different system,pop up
au Over the place.You IIllght say thaし
these``ullnec―
essary compLications"add clanty and precision to
English.Precisioltl,maybe,but how clear is the f01_
lowil■
g?“Fa party or parties rase(s)a questio■re―
garttng ths Elatter,the party or parties need(s)tO
take such steps as specined山 生the rules below.''
This is exactly the problem ltouched on in the Brst
paragraph.ms complication,and the accompally―
Ing lillguisttc ttasttcs it necessitates,never ttds―
es in」apanese docuIIlents.
The core ofthe problem is:How are nouns con―
ceptualized?For instance,nouns that refer to in―
"and“
tangible tLdngs(e.g.,“
informatio■
produc―
なOn'')を
re uSuatty uncountable,but“ meethg"and
``event''are treated as countable,eveIIthough they
lr_spttHing,concep…
are not tangible,The subtle,h角
tual nuallces平成述ch direrenttate“countable"no―
±0 王l “
u n C o u l l t a b l e ' ' n o l l n s a r e owlh江
ys ■a r e d l n ―
ェ
such as isL deer alldsheep.Henceitwo ish,Elanycult for foreigners.Sttply graspillg the IIle― g of
deer,hundreds ofsheep.
a nOuILiSユOtgenerally dttnculi buttO lmow how it
恥 e “m o u s em‐
i c e " c o m b i n a d o n l o o k s r e t is
t l concepttalized
ar h
is■ot nearly as easy_
its own way when one sees`louse― lice,"butthe sin―
Fyou have had a chance to read Japanese peo―
【
劇 ar Of“ dCe"is■ ot〔 rouse"■ or the plural of
ple's English writing or hear them speak the laII―
``house,"“
hice."Quickly we see thatths“
rule"is
ced mistakes oT strange
guage,you may have no視
hardly even that.And of course there are others:
u s a g e s o f s i止a
n邸
r and pluralfomsfor nouns,7niR―
``tooth―
teeth"alld``gooSe‐ geese"but there is no
use ofthe deanite and indemite articles(`the"and
`rbeeth''for`Ъ
``a"),and correspondillg verb disagreelnents.Tttds
ooth,''Ilor``meese''for`伍 oose."
The difaculty witt English■ ouns stems± om a■
is because the ttsthction betweell sin邸斌ar and plu―
nollns either being“
countable''or``uncountable_''
ral,taken for granted tt Enghsh iS anOvei notion
Generを 出y,it seernミ
to Japallese nattves,who do llot single out``one"for
,mless specincaly trainett En―
e
special treatIIlent.To be more precise,Japanese is
鋭 Sh nat貯 es are not aware ofthis fact.Words Ш 【
― basttdly be―
wattr,m出 納 nc air are切れcθ鶴れれb,α
number‐ neutral KaS are many otllerlanguages)。
cause they have no shape.Even」
apanese people
Ever shcelbegan sttdyingEnghsL I have won―
can accept utts fOr words such as these,but when it
dered why“ one"needs to be treated differently
comes to cheese,butter,bread and other solid
from“two or more."``One''isjust one of an the
things,the explanatton stops being co工
vIIIchg.・
many nulnberse Some languages do β
ctually have
Japanese conceptualize these items as comlnonly
special forlns for``two,''as well as“
olle."They dis"
seen ln stores,where they indeed look“ countable''
tinguish betwcen sin邸 姐ar,dual and tte rest.Theo―
because of packattg and presentation.Ob宙
ousユy
reticaユy,there could be languages that distinttsh
these words,alld the``rdes''that apply,come rroln
between single,double,triple and more.Happily,
`E10re
a time when cheese,butter,bread and thelike were
」apanese does not distinguish``one''from 【
not packaged and presented like they are now.
than one."Ittteats au numbers bfnouns equally.
To lnake matters even wors伊 二and from the per、
This lneans that」 apanese llouns一 since they
spective ofa nonnative speaker,itis a huge mess_
have no notion of number一
represttt aII abstract
IIxany nouns call be used either way!Even``cheese''
notion ofthe noun,Ifthere is a need to quantify this
can be counted if yOu have different“ cheeses''in
notion for soIIIe reason,a unit called a“
counter''or
``classitter"is employed;English does this with its
front of you.For example,generally``glass"is un―
countable because itis a lnateriaユ
ullcoultable nou述 ,by tlle way,sayttg ttwo p力
み
偽 of
,but six``glasses"
`愉
can be oIIthe table when the same noun is extend―
mik,力
『ee sれ
θθなofbClass"or`fourれ
2麓 of cattle."
`glass material,shaped so asto hold uq―
ed shghtlyぐ
Foreign learners of」 apanese often complain
uids").
abOut havlngし o learn different counters for differ,
A s a r e s L d t o f t h i s t t r e r e n t i a t i o n ent
b e tobjects:れ
w e e n sθ
iれfor
ngu―
long o巧
ectS,Sattstt for bound
matenals and ttα
ガfor aatitems,to narne a few.But
‐ this is simply because all nouns are treated equal―
y働?れ
cs,d2化
αttcれ
ど'sp?・
け。
cttι
aιCo″z7?協
αむ
,oれ
メrれむ
? zcガ
aけ
づ
づ
れ姥. 孔能θ
r t tr θ
o れれs 渉
朽町 拘r S 物純ガ
渉
?れ
θ
0
ly,chninattng the``need"for thc kinds ofu■ leces―
θ
ars,れ
c co77叩
CO'p・5わTヱ8 υ
″
銃ed!鴫 αれesc―
[α
れ―
sary comple斌 ties found in Enghsh
Tけ
れ″
角。αとCθrれ明Z5晩ガ
raぢ
2acんθ
υe容ガ
gttag2む
物.
Mlose complattlt do you tllink is morejusttted?