ELEMENTE DE CONSTRUCIE A COMUNICRII

I.

Fonetic i fonologie

Intonaia: structur, sens i funcii comunicative

Most transcription conventions have been devised for describing one particular accent or
language, and the specific conventions therefore need to be explained in the context of what is
being described. However, for general purposes the International Phonetic Alphabet offers the
two intonation marks shown in the box at the head of this article. Global rising and falling
intonation are marked with a diagonal arrow rising left-to-right [] and falling left-to-right [],
respectively. These may be written as part of a syllable, or separated with a space when they have
a broader scope:
He found it on the street?
[ hi fand t | n stit ]
Here the rising pitch on street indicates that the question hinges on that word, on where he found
it, not whether he found it.
Yes, he found it on the street.
[js hi fand t | n stit ]
How did you ever escape?
[ha ddju | v | skep ]
Here, as is common with wh- questions, there is a rising intonation on the question word, and a
falling intonation at the end of the question.
In many descriptions of English, the following intonation patterns are distinguished:

Rising Intonation means the pitch of the voice rises over time [];

Falling Intonation means that the pitch falls with time [];

Dipping or Fall-rise Intonation falls and then rises [];

Peaking or Rise-fall Intonation rises and then falls []

Functions of intonation
All vocal languages use pitch pragmatically in intonation for instance for emphasis, to convey
surprise or irony, or to pose a question. Tonal languages such as Chinese and Hausa use
intonation in addition to using pitch for distinguishing words.
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Many writers have attempted to produce a list of distinct functions of intonation. Perhaps the
longest was that of W.R.Lee who proposed ten. J.C. Wells and E.Couper-Kuhlen ) both put
forward six functions. Wells's list is given below; the examples are not his:

attitudinal function (for expressing emotions and attitudes)

example: a fall from a high pitch on the 'mor' syllable of "good morning" suggests more
excitement than a fall from a low pitch

grammatical function (to identify grammatical structure)

example: it is claimed that in English a falling pitch movement is associated with
statements, but a rising pitch turns a statement into a yesno question, as in He's going
home?. This use of intonation is more typical of American English than of British. It is
claimed that some languages, like Chickasaw and Kalaallisut, have the opposite pattern
from English: rising for statements and falling with questions.

focusing (to show what information in the utterance is new and what is already known)
example: in English I saw a man in the garden answers "Whom did you see?" or
"What happened?", while I saw a man in the garden answers "Did you hear a man in
the garden?"

discourse function (to show how clauses and sentences go together in spoken discourse)
example: subordinate clauses often have lower pitch, faster tempo and narrower pitch
range than their main clause,[6] as in the case of the material in parentheses in "The Red
Planet (as it's known) is fourth from the sun"

psychological function (to organize speech into units that are easy to perceive, memorize
and perform)
example: the utterance "You can have it in red blue green yellow or black" is more
difficult to understand and remember than the same utterance divided into tone units as in
"You can have it in red | blue | green | yellow | or black"

indexical function (to act as a marker of personal or social identity)

example: group membership can be indicated by the use of intonation patterns adopted
specifically by that group, such as street vendors or preachers. The so-called high rising
terminal, where a statement ends with a high rising pitch movement, is said to be typical
of younger speakers of English, and possibly to be more widely found among young
female speakers.

It is not known whether such a list would apply to other languages without alteration.
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Intonation in English
The description of English intonation has developed along different lines in the USA and in
Europe.
1. American approaches to English intonation
The dominant framework used for American English from the 1940s to the 1990s was based on
the idea of pitch phonemes, or tonemes. In the work of Trager and Smith[7] there are four
contrastive levels of pitch: low (1), middle (2), high (3), and very high (4). (Unfortunately, the
important work of Kenneth Pike on the same subject[8] had the four pitch levels labelled in the
opposite way, with (1) being high and (4) being low). In its final form, the Trager and Smith
system was highly complex, each pitch phoneme having four pitch allophones (or allotones);
there was also a Terminal Contour to end an intonation clause, as well as four stress phonemes.[9]
Some generalizations using this formalism are given below. It should be noted that the American
linguist Dwight Bolinger carried on a long campaign to argue that pitch contours were more
important in the study of intonation than individual pitch levels.[10]

Normal conversation is usually at middle or high pitch; low pitch occurs at the end of
utterances other than yesno questions, while high pitch occurs at the end of yesno
questions. Very high pitch is for strong emotion or emphasis.[11] Pitch can indicate
attitude: for example, Great uttered in isolation can indicate weak emotion (with pitch
starting medium and dropping to low), enthusiasm (with pitch starting very high and
ending low), or sarcasm (with pitch starting and remaining low).

Declarative sentences show a 231 pitch pattern. If the last syllable is prominent the
final decline in pitch is a glide. For example, in This is fun, this is is at pitch 2, and fun
starts at level 3 and glides down to level 1. But if the last prominent syllable is not the last
syllable of the utterance, the pitch fall-off is a step. For example, in That can be
frustrating, That can be has pitch 2, frus- has level 3, and both syllables of -trating have
pitch 1.[12] Wh-questions work the same way, as in Who (2) will (2) help (31)? and Who
(2) did (3) it (1)?. But if something is left unsaid, the final pitch level 1 is replaced by
pitch 2. Thus in John's (2) sick (32) ..., with the speaker indicating more to come,
John's has pitch 2 while sick starts at pitch 3 and drops only to pitch 2.

Yesno questions with a 23 intonation pattern usually have subject-verb inversion, as in

Have (2) you (2) got (2) a (2) minute (3, 3)? (Here a 24 contour would show more
emotion, while a 12 contour would show uncertainly.) Another example is Has (2) the
(2) plane (3) left (3) already (3, 3, 3)?, which, depending on the word to be emphasized,
could move the location of the rise, as in Has (2) the (2) plane (2) left (3) already (3, 3,
3)? or Has (2) the (2) plane (2) left (2) already (2, 3, 3)? And for example the latter
question could also be framed without subject-verb inversion but with the same pitch
contour: The (2) plane (2) has (2) left (2) already (2, 3, 3)?

Tag questions with declarative intent at the end of a declarative statement follow a 31
contour rather than a rising contour, since they are not actually intended as yesno
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questions, as in We (2) should (2) visit (3, 1) him (1), shouldn't (3, 1) we (1)? But tag
questions exhibiting uncertainty, which are interrogatory in nature, have the usual 23
contour, as in We (2) should (2) visit (3, 1) him (1), shouldn't (3, 3) we (3)?

Questions with or can be ambiguous in English writing with regard to whether they are
either-or questions or yesno questions. But intonation in speech eliminates the
ambiguity. For example, Would (2) you (2) like (2) juice (3) or (2) soda (3, 1)?
emphasizes juice and soda separately and equally, and ends with a decline in pitch, thus
indicating that this is not a yesno question but rather a choice question equivalent to
Which would you like: juice or soda? In contrast, Would (2) you (2) like (2) juice (3) or
(3) soda (3, 3)? has yesno intonation and thus is equivalent to Would you like something
to drink (such as juice or soda)?

Thus the two basic sentence pitch contours are rising-falling and rising. However, other withinsentence rises and falls result from the placement of prominence on the stressed syllables of
certain words.
Note that for declaratives or wh-questions with a final decline, the decline is located as a stepdown to the syllable after the last prominently stressed syllable, or as a down-glide on the last
syllable itself if it is prominently stressed. But for final rising pitch on yesno questions, the rise
always occurs as an upward step to the last stressed syllable, and the high (3) pitch is retained
through the rest of the sentence.
A more recent approach to the analysis of intonation grew out of the research of Janet
Pierrehumbert[13] and developed into the system most widely known by the name of ToBI. The
approach is sometimes referred to as Autosegmental. The most important points of this system
are the following:

Only two tones, associated with pitch accents, are recognised, these being H
(high) and L (low); all other tonal contours are made up of combinations of H, L
and some other modifying elements.

In addition to the two tones mentioned above, the phonological system includes
"break indices" used to mark the boundaries between prosodic elements. Breaks
may be of different levels.

Tones are linked to stressed syllables: an asterisk is used to indicate a tone that
must be aligned with a stressed syllable.

In addition, there are phrasal accents which signal the pitch at the end of an
intermediate phrase (e.g. H, L) and boundary tones at full phrase boundaries (e.g.
H% and L%).

A full ToBI transcription includes not only the above phonological elements, but
also the acoustic signal on which the transcription is based. The ToBI system is
intended to be used in computer-based transcription.
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A simplified example of a ToBI transcription can be given. In this example, two phrases "we
looked at the sky" and "and saw the clouds" are combined into one larger intonational phrase;
there is a rise on "sky" and a fall on "clouds".
L*
L*HH* H* L-L%
we looked at the sky and saw the clouds
(Tones and Break Indices). (http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~tobi/)

2. British analyses of English intonation

British descriptions of English intonation can be traced back to the 16th century.[14] Early in the
20th century the dominant approach in the description of English and French intonation was
based on a small number of basic "tunes" associated with intonation units: in a typical
description, Tune 1 is falling, with final fall, while Tune 2 has a final rise.[15] Phoneticians such as
H.E. Palmer[16] broke up the intonation of such units into smaller components, the most important
of which was the nucleus, which corresponds to the main accented syllable of the intonation unit,
usually in the last lexical word of the intonation unit. Each nucleus carries one of a small number
of nuclear tones, usually including fall, rise, fall-rise, rise-fall, and possibly others. The nucleus
may be preceded by a head containing stressed syllables preceding the nucleus, and a tail
consisting of syllables following the nucleus within the tone unit. Unstressed syllables preceding
the head (if present) or nucleus (if there is no head) constitute a pre-head. This approach was
further developed by Halliday [17] and by O'Connor and Arnold,[18] though with considerable
variation in terminology. This "Standard British" treatment of intonation in its present-day form
is explained in detail by Wells [19] and in a simplified version by Roach.[20] Halliday saw the
functions of intonation as depending on choices in three main variables: Tonality (division of
speech into intonation units), Tonicity (the placement of the tonic syllable or nucleus) and Tone
(choice of nuclear tone);[21] these terms (sometimes referred to as "the three T's") have been used
more recently.[19]
Research by Crystal[22][23] emphasized the importance of making generalizations about intonation
based on authentic, unscripted speech, and the roles played by prosodic features such as tempo,
pitch range, loudness and rhythmicality in communicative functions usually attributed to
intonation.
The transcription of intonation in such approaches is normally incorporated into the line of text.
A typical example would be:
We looked at the sky | and saw the clouds
in this example, the | mark indicates a division between intonation units.
An influential development in British studies of intonation has been Discourse Intonation, an
offshoot of Discourse Analysis first put forward by David Brazil.[24][25] This approach lays great
emphasis on the communicative and informational use of intonation, pointing out its use for
distinguishing between presenting new information and referring to old, shared information, as
well as signalling the relative status of participants in a conversation (e.g teacher-pupil, or
doctor-patient) and helping to regulate conversational turn-taking. The description of intonation
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in this approach owes much to Halliday. Intonation is analysed purely in terms of pitch
movements and "key" and makes little reference to the other prosodic features usually thought to
play a part in conversational interaction.

Erori tipice de pronunie comise de vorbitorii de limb romn ca limb

matern

First of all I would like to begin with the question : What is pronunciation ? The
English Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary gives the following definition for the term
pronunciation - the way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced and
secondly it is the way in which a particular person pronounces the words of a given language ,
in our case , the words of English .Well, there are two aspects of pronunciation . The first - the
way in which a language or a particular word or sound is pronounced needs a special attention
. Why is it so ? Because in order to know how to pronounce the words or the sounds a person
should be taught first. So in this paper we are trying to discover how many and which aspects
of pronunciation must learn or must be taught .
In G. V. Rogovas Methods of Teaching English in the compartment Teaching
Pronunciation we find that the first impact of any language comes from the spoken word. The
basis of all languages is sound , but words are merely combinations of sounds . That is absolutely
right and yet the acquisition of good pronunciation depends to a great extent on the learners
ability of listening with care and discrimination . One of the tasks of language teaching consists in
devising ways to help the learners and the unfamiliar sounds . The hearing of a given word calls
forth the acoustic image of that word from which a meaning is obtained . Therefore teaching
pronunciation is of great importance in the developing of pupils hearing and speaking habits and
skills.
Teaching pronunciation is as well of no less importance in the developing of reading and
writing habits , since writing or what is written is a graphic representation of sound sequences. In
reading the visual images become acoustic images . These are combined with kinesthetic images ,
resulting in inner speech . Wrong pronunciation often leads to misunderstanding . For example
when a speaker or a reader replaces one phoneme with another , he unintentionally uses quite a
different word , in this way altering the sense of what he wanted to say .
e.g. white instead of wide , it instead of eat ; pot instead of port , etc. Every
teacher must understand how important the teaching correct pronunciation is . As we already
know any language has its specific phonic system . This is true for English as well . The sounds
of English are not the same as the sounds of Romanian or even of Russian . The pronunciation
of words is not only a matter of sounds , but also of stress on accent . Some words have the
heavier stress on the first part of the word :
e.g.

sorry , evening , morning , answer .

and other words have the heavier stress on the second part :
e.g. begin , mistake , about , reduce , result , occur , effect .
Rogova suggests us that stress is really very important to the assimilation of English
pronunciation . foreigners often find it difficult to understand an English mans speech and ask
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him to speak more slowly , because in quick speech the accented syllables are so strong that
they almost drown the others.
The pronunciation of sentence patterns includes also variations of musical tones : rise and
fall . English tones patterns differ from those of Romanian , that is why pupils find it difficult to
use adequate tone patterns in conversation or while reading aloud . Sometimes Romanian people
speaking English use wrong intonation because of the interference of the mother tongue . That
often leads to misunderstanding and impoliteness :
e.g. Will you wait for me here ?
is not only a wrong tone pattern but is impolite in its form .
While studying the ESL and EFL programs we notice that English is a term that can refer
to various dialects , including British English , North American English and others. Obviously those
studying English in order to fit into their new country will learn the variety spoken there . However for
those who do not intend to change countries the question arises of which sort of English to learn . If they
are going abroad for a short time to study English , they need to chose which country . For those staying
at home , the choice may be made for them in that private language schools or the state school system
may only offer one model . For example students studying EFL in Hong Kong , are more likely to learn
British English , whereas students in the Philippines are more likely to learn American English .
Language teaching practice often assumes that most of the difficulties that learners face in the
study of English are a consequence of the degree to which their native language differs from English .
A native speaker of Romanian , for example, may face much more difficulties than a native speaker of
German . This may be true for anyone of any other mother tongue , also called first language , setting
out to learn any other language .
Language learners often produce errors of syntax and pronunciation thought to result from the
influence of their mother tongue , such as mapping its grammatical patterns inappropriately onto the
second language , pronouncing sounds incorrectly or with difficulty or confusing items of vocabulary
known as false friends .This is known as mother tongue transfer or language interference . However this
transfer aspects are typically stronger for beginners language production .
It happens very often that teachers are comfortable teaching reading , writing , listening and
to a degree general oral skills , but when it comes to pronunciation we often lack the basic knowledge of
articulator phonetics not difficult to acquire , to offer students anything more rudimentary and unhelpful
advice. There is also a tendency for us to focus on production as the main problem affecting our
learners .Most research however , shows clearly that the problem is more likely to be reception what you do not hear , you do not say .Moreover if the English is not clearly received the brain of the
learner converts it into the closest sound into their own language . Thus the dental English fricative [th]
in those becomes converted by Spanish speakers into the dentalised Spanish [ d] , producing dose , as
if what the speakers hears . Given this reality , it would seem logically to place a heavy emphasize on
listening or reception as a way into releasing appropriate pronunciation or production .
Apart from using knowledge of our students and our ears in order to be aware of their
pronunciation problems , it is also useful to have some prior knowledge of what elements of English
phonetics and phonology are likely to cause problems .This is one area of language learning where few
people would question the use of contrastive analysis.
It is very important to mention the opinion of Marianne Celce-Murcia and Janet M. Godwin
concerning difficulties in teaching English pronunciation . They say that there have been many
differences of opinion over the years in the language teaching pronunciation and about how best to teach
it. In direct approaches pronunciation is very important but the methodology is primitive : the teacher is
ideally a native or near native speaker of the target language who presents pronunciation inductively and
7

corrects via modeling listen and imitate me as best as you can .There is a threshold level of
pronunciation in English such as that if a nonnative speakers pronunciation falls below this level he or
she will not be able to communicate orally no matter how good his or her control of English grammar
might be.
What are the variables that seem to impede or enhance the acquisition of a reasonable
pronunciation in English ? Kenworthy (1987) provides a useful inventory .For each of her 6 factors we
can make our own conclusion at the end.
The first factor is the learners native language. Mother-tongue transfer is generally more
systematic , pervasive and persistent in th area of pronunciation than it is in grammar or in lexicon .This
makes it important for teachers to know something about the sound system of the language that their
learners speak in order to anticipate problems and understand the source of errors.
The second factor is the learners age .The younger the age when the learner begins to acquire
English the better the learners pronunciation .In fact complete mastery of English before age 12 generally
results in accent-free speech , whereas acquisition after age 15 virtually guarantees some degree of
accentedness in speech.
The third factor is the learners exposure .Exposure to the target language can refer to both the
length of time and the extensity of the exposure over time. Generally speaking the more time spent on
learning the spoken language the better the pronunciation .
The learners innate phonetic ability is the fourth factor. Some people simply have more skills at
or aptitude for imitating and producing sounds and sound patterns that are new to them. All other things
equal such learners will achieve a better pronunciation than will those learners with lesser aptitude.
The fifth factor is the learners attitude and sense of identity. The attitude the learner has toward
the target language and its speakers may affect his or her pronunciation .The more favorable the attitude ,
the better the pronunciation is.
The sixth is the learners motivation and concern for good pronunciation .This factor is of great
importance in pronunciation instruction. If the learner s motivation to prove is strong and if the
investment of time and effort is great , there will be improvement .
Another difficulty that may occur is the difference between the sound system of the languages
.For example if we compare Romanian with English than it is easy to observe the following differences:
1.

Romanian does not have dental fricatives

voiceless [ ] may be replaced with a dental [ t ].

voiced [ ]

may become a dental [ d ] .

since [ t ] and [ d ] are typically pronounced as dental stops anyway , words like there and
dare can become homophones.

[ ] pronounced as [ ] . This makes many Romanians pronounce death and that as

homophones.

2.

Tendency to pronounce the English high lax vowels [ I] , [ ] as [ i ] ,[ u ] . For example fill and
feel , put and poot , live and leave are homophones, since Romanian does not have these vowels.

3.

Tendency to pronounce [ ] as [ g ] ,(singer ,rhymes with finger) because Romanian [ ] is

an allophone of [n] before velar stops.

4.

Tendency to replace the English retroflex [ r ] with the Romanian trilled [r ].

5.

Common mistakes due to Romanian cognates with different meanings ( false friends).
8

6.

Some speakers may have difficulty in using prepositions .Romanian is an inflected language and
use of prepositions is less extensive than in English .While English prepositions modify the meaning of
verbs in Romanian there are separate words for each meaning .
e.g. go in - a intra
go out - a iei
go away a pleca
go ahead - a continua
A significant number of Latinate words have identical or very similar spelling in Romanian and
English , making pronunciation confusing.
So pronunciation is deffinitely the biggest thing that people notice when a person is speaking English .
The speakers pronunciation creates the first impression he or she makes when speaking.

II Morfologie

Categorii gramaticale ale substantivului

Numrul

Number is thus the grammatical distinction between nouns or names of things, corresponding to
the natural distinction of one or more than one in the things themselves (unity and plurality). In
Old. English. a Dual Number is found in the case of the 1st and 2nd Personal Pronouns.
The Plural of Nouns is formed from the Singular. In the oldest form of the English language,
several plural endings existed. Of these one only remains in active force in modern English,
namely the ending s or es. Hence when a new word arises, we at once, and as a matter of course,
form its plural in this way: telegram, telegrams.
Regular Plurals in es, s. When the s sound can be conveniently attached without making an
additional syllable, s only is used: boy, boy-s; girl, girl-s ; lion, lion-s; elephant, elephant-s;
Caesar, the Caesar-s; Pitt, the Pitt-s.
But when the s sound cannot be conveniently (euphoniously) attached without making an
additional syllable, es is used: as, fox, fox-es; church, church-es. This is the case when the noun
already ends in a sound of s; viz. s, sh, ch, x, z : gas, gas-es; summons, summons-es; lass, lasses; fish, fish-es; birch, birch-es; box, box-es; topaz, topaz-es; .Fitz, the Fitz-es.
When ch is sounded as k, s only is added: as monarch, monarch-s. The sound of th is softened
before s; mouth, mouths; path, paths. Also s is softened in house, houses.
NOTE.-Convenience and ease of articulation are in grammar eluded under the term euphony.
Any change in a word made for greater ease of articulation is said to be made for the sake of
euphony.
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Obs. To the above add many nouns in o: potato, potato-es and one in i alkali, alkali-es. The
following lists of nouns in o may be useful :o with plural oes

Singular.

Plural.

buffalo
calico
cargo
domino
echo
flamingo
hero
magnifico
manifesto
mosquito
motto
mulatto
negro
no
potato
tomato
tornado
volcano

buffaloes
calicoes
cargoes
dominoes
echoes
flamingoes
heroes
magnificoes
manifestoes
mosquitoes
mottoes
mulattoes
negroes
noes*
potatoes
tomatoes
tornadoes
volcanoes

o with plural os :-

Singular.

Plural.

bravo
canto
cento
duodecimo
embryo
grotto
octavo
portico
quarto
rondo

bravos
cantos
centos
duodecimos
embryos
grottos
octavos
porticos
quartos
rondos
10

solo
stiletto
tyro
virtuoso
folio
nuncio
oratorio
portfolio

solos
stilettos
tyros
virtuosos (-i)
folios (io)
nuncios (io)
oratorios (io)
portfolios (io)

It will be observed that those which take a plural in -os are mostly foreign words imperfectly
naturalised. A few fluctuate in the spelling of their plurals: calico, innuendo, mosquito, mulatto,
portico (os and oes), etc.
Nouns in f, fe, and if
These as a general rule change the f into v before the plural ending: leaf, leaves; wife, wives;
wolf, wolves.
But nouns in ief, oof, ff, rf, usually take simple s: brief, briefs; chief, chiefs; grief, griefs;
hoof, hoofs; roof, roofs; proof, proofs;
cliff, cliffs; skiff, skiffs; whiff, whiffs;
dwarf, dwarfs; scarf, scarfs; turf, turfs.
Staff however makes staves ; and wharf, scarf, turf, sometimes take a plural in -ves (wharves,
scarves, turves). Thief makes thieves ; fife, fifes ; and strife, strifes
Nouns in y.
Final y not immediately preceded by a vowel is changed into ies: lady, ladies. .
But when a vowel immediately precedes, the y remains unchanged: boy, boys; day, days;
chimney, chimneys; attorney, attorneys. Nouns ending in -quy take ies: soliloquy, soliloquies.
Proper names in y do not usually change the y: the three Marys (but also Maries). So also guy
makes guys.
Obs. Such spellings as chimnies, attornies, although frequently used, are accordingly to be
avoided
A few remains of other plurals exists:
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1 Inflexion by change in the body of the word:

man, men; woman, women; foot, feet; goose, geese; tooth, teeth; louse, lice; mouse, mice.
2 Plurals in n or en:
ox, oxen; eye, eyen (=eyes, Spencer, Shakspeare) shoe, shoon (=shoes; Sir Walter Scott.) brother,
brethern (where there is internal changes besides) child, children (Old English, childer)
To these may be added:
cow, kine (=cows); hose, hosen.
Swine is not a plural form, the plural of sow is sows.
3 The plural the same as the singular; in some cases owing to the loss of final vowel or other sign
of the plural distinction: sheep, sheep; deer, deer; swine, swine.

Obs. 1. The words deer, sheep, swine, are without sign of plural in the oldest form of
English also, but they retain it in Modern German.
Obs. 2. The names of most fishes and of some birds are used in the singular collectively,
as: to fish for trout, salmon, mackerel; to shoot grouse, snipe, wild-duck.
In the same way are used the nouns: head, brace, dozen, pair, couple, yoke, score,
hundred, etc., as: so many head of deer; twenty brace of partridges; a dozen pair of
gloves, twelve yoke of oxen; and in speaking of ships, sail, as: ten sail of the line. Also
cannon, shot, as: they captured thirty cannon; the Germans began to fire red-hot shot into
the citadel. Shots only of number of times of shooting.
Obs. 3. In such expressions as 100,000 foot, 10,000 horse, the noun soldiers is omitted
for brevity.
Obs. 4. Some difficulty is presented by a few compound words, the elements of which
have not perfectly coalesced. When the latter element is an Adjective, qualifying a
preceding Noun, the plural sign is usually attached the the noun: as: court-martial, courtsmartial; knight-errant, knights-errant; ---- States-General.
Court-martials, only of different sittings of a court-martial.
When two titles are united, the last now usually takes the plural, as: major-generals; a
few old expressions sometimes occur in which both words, following the French idiom,
take the plural, as: knights-templars, lords-lieutenants, lords-justices.

12

Double Plurals.

The following double forms are used with a difference of meaning :

brother: brothers, children of the same parent; bretheren (old form), now used in figurative sense;
members of a society.
die : dies, for stamping; dice, for play.
penny: pennies, the coins so called; pence, of sums of money.
genius: geniuses, highly gifted men; genii, supernatural beings.
index: indexes, to a book; indices, in algebra.
pea (a late word), peas, separate seeds ; pease, collective. [The
s is part of the root: Latin pisum.]
Nouns used only in the singular:

Some nouns, owing to the nature of their meaning, are used only in the singular number. Such
are the names of materials or substances: as, wine water, oxygen, gold, silver; and of qualities :
as, bravery, hardness, wit, humour. When such nouns take a plural, it is in a different sense from
the singular ; for example :
1. Denoting different sorts of the same thing: thus the nouns wine, brandy, sugar, marble, have no
plural as denoting the substances or things so called; but we may speak of wines, brandies,
sugars, marbles, in the sense of different sorts of wine, brandy, etc.
2. Names of qualities may be used in the plural to denote repeated instances of any particular
quality, good or bad: thus negligences (Common Prayer) denotes instances of negligence;
beauties, points or features of beauty; animosities, hostile feelings etc.
Nouns used only in the Plural.

Other nouns exist only in the plural, the things themselves having a kind of plurality about them:
1. Names of many common instruments which have two parts forming a kind of pair: bellows,
scissors, pincers, shears, tongs, spectacles.
2. Names of certain articles of dress formed in a similar manner: trousers, drawers, breeches.
3. Names of diseases and ailments, showing themselves by many marks or symptoms: measles,
mumps, staggers (in animals).
4. Names of games: billiards, draughts, fives, &c.
5. Others are miscellaneous: Commons (House of), obsequies, nuptials; matins, vespers;
proceeds (of a sale) ; thanks; dumps; (high) jinks, &c.
Doubtful.-A few nouns hang in suspense between singular and plural:
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Alms : properly singular; the S being part of the original word (0. E. aelmesse, " who asked an
alms," Acts ii. 3 ; " much alms." Now perhaps oftener plural.
Amends: really a plural; but also used as a sin-gular ( = French amende) :- " To make an
amends." (Percy An.)
Eaves: really singular (0. E. efese but often used as plural.
Means: in sense of manner, expedient: strictly plural; but also used as singular: " A means to do
the prince my master good." (Shaks. Winter's Tale, iv. 3.) Especially in the phrases " by this
means;" " a means to an end " (in common use). But the word can be used as plural when it
denotes a number of acts or expedients :-' Thou hast shown me (the means of revenge, and be
assured I will embrace them," (Ivanhoe, ch. xxvii.) The singular mean is also used.
News (originally Genitive : hwaet niwes = quid novi Oliphant, p. 17): once used either as
singular or plural.:-" This news hath made thee a most ugly man." (Shakspeare, K. John, iii. 1.) "
Ten days ago I drowned these news in tears." (Id. Henry VI. Part III. ii. 1.) Now always
singular :-" ill news flies apace." (Proverb.) " The latest news is. . . "
Pains: in sense of effort, labour : strictly plural, but used rather as a collective singular; thus we
now say, much pains, great pains, a great deal of pains. But the plural also occurs: " Your pains
are registered . . .." (Shaks. Macbeth, i. 3.)
Riches : properly singular, the s being part of the original word (Fr. richesse):
"Riches fineless [endless] is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor." (Shaks. Othello, iii. 3.) Now always plural: " Riches are
not for ever." (Prov. xxvii, 24.) " Riches make themselves wings." (Ib.'xxiii. 5.)
Tidings: plural, but in older writers used also as singular: " To bring this tidings to the ... king."
(Shaks. Rich. III. iv. 3.)
Wages: strictly plural, but formerly used as singular: " He earneth wages to put it into a bag with
holes." (Hay. i. 6.) The singular wage is also used.
Obs. The names of certain sciences derived from Greek are plural in form in English as in Greek,
but now commonly treated as singular: physics, metaphysics, dynamics, mechanics, hydraulics,
hydrostatics, pneumatics:" Mathematics becomes the instrument of Astronomy and Physics." (Lewes.) " Mechanics is the
science in which are investigated the actions of bodies on one another." (Nat. Cycl.) But some of
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these, especially mathematics, metaphysics, physics, are also treated as plural:-'' His [Plato's]
metaphysics are of a nature to frighten away all but the most determined students." (Lewes.)
" The mathematics lead us to lay out of account all that is not proved." (Sir W. Hamilton,
Essays.)
It is easy to see that in the last example but one, the plural is required; but only a mature
judgment can decide whether in each case that occurs the singular or the plural is more proper.
APPENDIX.
A number of nouns 'borrowed from foreign languages without change, retain their proper plurals.
The following are of frequent occurrence :
Singular.

Plural.

formula (L.)
larva (L.)
nebula (L.)
focus (L.)
genius (L.)
magus (L.)
radius (L.)
terminus (L.)
tumulus (L.)
addendum (L.)
animalculum (L.)
datum (L.)
desideratum (L.)
dictum (L.)
effluvium (L.)
erratum (L.)
memorandum (L.)
stratum (L.) strata
automaton (Gr.)
phenomenon (Gr.)
genus (L.)
axis (L.)
ellipsis (G.)
metamorphosis (Gr.)
parenthesis (Gr.)

formulae
larvae
nebulae
foci
genii see also
magi
radii
termini
tumuli
addenda
animalcula
data
desiderata
dicta
effluvia
errata
memoranda
strata
automata
phenomena
genera
axes
ellipses
metamorphoses
parentheses
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index (L.)
vertex (L.)
appendix (L.)
cherub (Hebr.)
seraph (Hebr.)
bandit
beau (Fr.)
bureau
flambeau (Fr.)
savant (Fr.)

indices see also

vertices
appendices
cherubim (also cherubs)
seraphim (seraphs)
banditti (Ital.) (bandits)
beaux
bureaux
flambeaux
savants.

Obs. 1. All such words must be regarded as imperfectly naturalized, since they still follow the
laws of the languages from which they are derived.
Obs. 2 Some foreign words in use exist in the plural only: e.g. literati (Lat.), aborigines (Lat.),
antipodes (Gr.), landes (Fr.), i.e. sandy plains ; agenda (Lat.), i.e. business to be transacted;
ephemera, creatures of a day; minutiae, small niceties (of criticism).
Determination - Articles
The 3 articles in English are a, an and the. The learner has to decide noun-by-noun which one of
the articles to use*. In fact, there are 4 choices to make, because sometimes no article is
necessary. Native-speakers, of course, use the articles correctly without thinking in everyday
spoken langauge. English learners, on the other hand, need to have some guidelines for making
the right choice - particularly those learners whose own language does not have articles, such as
Japanese or Korean. The guidelines that follow here should help ESL students to a basic
understanding of English article use.
The most important first step in choosing the correct article is to categorize the noun as count or
uncount in its context**:
- A count noun is a noun that can have a number in front of it: 1 teacher, 3 books, 76 trombones,
1,000,000 people.
- An uncount noun is a noun that cannot have a number put in front of it: 1 water, 2 lucks, 10
airs, 21 oils, 39 informations. Once you have correctly categorized the noun (using your
dictionary if necessary), the following "rules" apply:
Uncount nouns

You cannot say a/an with an uncount noun.

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You cannot put a number in front of an uncount noun. (You cannot make an
uncount noun plural.)

You use an uncount noun with no article if you mean that thing in general.

You use the with an uncount noun when you are talking about a particular
example of that thing.

Count nouns

You can put a number in front of a count noun. (You can make a count noun
plural.)

You can put both a/an and the in front of a count noun.

You must put an article in front of a singular count noun.

You use a plural count noun with no article if you mean all or any of that
thing.

You usually use a/an with a count noun the first time you say or write that
noun.

You use the with count nouns:

the second and subsequent times you use the noun in a piece of
speech or writing

when the listener knows what you are referring to (maybe because
there is only one of that thing)

You use an (not a) when the next word (adverb, adjective, noun) starts with a
vowel sound.

Note:

The above rules apply whether there is or there is not an adjective in front of
the noun.

Some nouns can be either count or uncount, depending on the context and
meaning:
o

Do you have paper? I want to draw a picture. (uncount = a sheet of

paper)

Can you get me a paper when youre at the shop? (count = a

newspaper)
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Uncount nouns are often preceded by phrases such as: a lot of .. (luck), a
piece of .. (cake), a bottle of .. (milk), a grain of .. (rice).
* Instead of an article, the noun can also be preceded by a determiner such
as this, that, some, many or my, his, our, etc.

Following are some of the most important guidelines listed above, with example sentences:

1. You use an uncount noun with no

article if you mean all or any of that
thing.

2. You use the with an uncount noun

when you are talking about a
particular example of that thing.

3. You usually use a/an with a count

noun the first time you say or write
that noun.

4. You use the with count nouns the

second and subsequent times you
use the noun, or when the listener
already knows what you are referring
to (maybe because there is only one
of that thing).

I need help!

I don't eat cheese.

Do you like music?

Thanks for the help you gave

me yesterday.

I didn't eat the cheese. It was

green!

Did you like the music they

played at the dance?

Can I borrow a pencil, please?

There's a cat in the garden!

Do you have an mp3 player?

Where's the pencil I lent you

yesterday?

I think the cat belongs to the

new neighbours.

I dropped the mp3 player and

it broke.

Please shut the door!

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5. You use a plural count noun with

no article if you mean all or any of
that thing.

6. The above rules apply whether

there is or there is not an adjective in
front of the noun.

I don't like dogs.

Do they have children?

I don't need questions. Give

me answers!

I don't eat German cheese.

Can I borrow a red pencil,

please?

There's an extremely large cat

in the garden!

I don't like small, noisy

children.

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