13 The expression of quantity

The idea of measuring is such a fundamental part of the human psyche. We naturally attempt
to separate the world around us into easily measurable sections through which we can better
understand our surroundings. Every day, we use expressions of quantity in our speech and
writing, almost without realizing it. We might want to buy a pound of cheese at a grocery store
or order a gallon of milk. However, expressions of quantity are not limited to everyday
informal language since it occurs in all contexts and in all registers. Therefore the notion of
quality and the different means to express it should be taught throughout any student’s
learning process.

This unit will examine first the notion of quantity in singular and plural nouns. It will then focus
on the different processes that the English language has to form the plural (regular and
irregular). Then we will also examine how to teach these structures in our classes.

The expression of quantity in English is primarily connected to the use of nouns, pronouns,
determiners and quantifiers. In terms of quantity, nouns can be divided into count nouns and
non-count nouns, also commonly known as countable and uncountable nouns. Count nouns
express a number of things and ideas that we can count. For instance, we can count pens since
we can have one, two, three or twenty-five. On the other hand, non-count nouns are concepts
or substances that we cannot divide into separate elements usually because they are a mass.
For instance, we cannot count sugar. However, we can use a partitive construction in order to
count masses as in two packets of sugar. It is often common for count and non-count nouns to
cross from one category to another. This is very common when dealing with the semantic field
of food and drinks. For instance, one can buy a piece of cheese or two cheeses. Here the non-
count use refers to the general concept of cheese and the count use to a specific unit of
cheese. As we have already seen, non-count nouns can also be reclassified by means of
partitive constructions such as a bit of, a slice of…

As we are going to see later, count and non-count nouns may be used along with quantifyers,
which are words used to create definite or indefinite expressions of quantity as in lots of food
and twenty-four students.

The English system of number is primarily two-fold, and can be divided into singular and plural.
Plural should be taken as meaning more than one, rather than two or more, as can be seen in
the expressions such as one and a half months. Dual number may also be found in expressions
such as both, either and neither, which can only be used when dealing with two elements.

Expressions of quantity are not limited to noun phrase structures since certain verbal
expressions include allusions to quantity as in it’s bucketing down meaning it is raining a lot.

The largest group of nouns in English is the count noun group, with separate singular and
plural forms. Count nouns

The regular plural marker in English is the suffix –s and can be pronounced in one of three
different ways according to preceding phonemes: it is pronounced /IZ/ after nouns ending in
the sibilant consonants /s,z,∫,t∫,∑,d∑/ as in churches, colleges or houses. When preceded by
vowels and voiced non-sibilant consonants, the suffix is pronounced /z/ as in beds, tables,
spoons, shoes and chairs. After nouns ending in voiceless non-sibilant consonants, the suffix is
pronounced /s/ as in pets, packs and tops.

With regard to spelling, the regular spelling pattern –s is used in the majority of the cases to
mark the plural as in cats, trees and houses. However, when the unmarked form of the noun
ends in the sibilant endings –s, -z, -x, -ch and –sh then the plural marker is –es as in ashes,
sandwiches and foxes. Nouns which end in vowel + o usually add –s as in radios and studios,
whereas noun which end in consonant + o usually add –es as in tomatoes, potatoes and
heroes. However there are some exceptions to this latter case as in solos and pianos. In some
other cases both spellings of the plural suffix can be found as in banjo/banjoes and
archipelagos/archipelagoes… Nouns which end in –y have two possibilities according to
whether the letter preceding the “y” is a vowel or a consonant. In the case of consonant + y, ‘y’
changes to ‘I’ and takes the suffix –es as in butterflies and spies. In the case of vowel + y, the ‘y’
is kept and the –s suffix is used as in holidays and monkeys.

In the case of abbreviations, there is a convention in English in which certain abbreviations are
doubled to express the plural form as in pp for pages or qq for questions. In the case of single
letters, the plural is marked by adding an apostrophe + s as in dot the i’s and cross the t’s. This
same convention is used with numerals and shortenings as in the 1950’s and CD’s. However, it
is also very common to find them without the apostrophe as in 1950s and CDs.

In the case of compound nouns, the plural is marked in three different ways: the most
common way is the addition of the suffixes –s, –es or an alternative irregular plural marker to
the second element of the compound as in skateboards firemen or policewomen. This occurs
even in cases where the second element of the compound noun is not itself a noun, which can
give rise to unexpected spellings such as stand-bys or lay-bys. Also when the first element is an
obvious head noun and the second element can be considered a clear post-modifier, the plural
suffix or marker is found in the first element as in passers-by and courts-martial. In case of
appositional compounds which express the sex of the second element and are generally
formed with man- or women-, both elements have the plural marker as in women pilots.

Apart from the regular way of forming the plural, English also has many irregular processes of
plural formation of count nouns. In most of the cases, the words involved in these minor
processes cannot be predicted, and therefore, it is necessary that students learn these forms
separately. We can distinguish between four different irregular plural forms. First, there are
some words that suffer voicing of the final fricative consonants /f/ or /θ/. This may occur when
nouns are pluralized as in path-paths and mouth-mouths. Second, few words fall within the
group called mutation plurals. In this case, the vowels within a word change to form the plural
as in man-men and mouse-mice. Third, there are few words that contain an –en suffix which
indicates plural as in child-children, ox-oxen. Fourth, some nouns keep the same form in
singular or plural. This type of plural formation is called zero plural and usually occurs with
animals, nationalities, quantitative nouns and nouns which end in –s as in fish, Japanese, two
dozen eggs and series. Mutation plurals, “-en” plurals and zero plural are traces of old English
and they are not a productive way of forming the plural nowadays.

There is also another way to form the plural which is related to the English capacity of
borrowing words from other languages. In languages where the regular plural suffix is ‘s’ as in
Spanish, the English from remains the same as in siestas or tacos. However, when a distinct
foreign plural form exists, some of the foreign words take a regular English plural form,
whereas others, especially in more technical and specialized contexts, maintain their original
foreign plural form. For example the foreign word formula takes the plural formulas in
everyday language, but takes the foreign plural formulae in physics. Generally speaking, the
more common a word is in general usage, the more likely it is to take the regular English plural
form. Word containing a foreign plural are words from Latin (corpus-corpora, curriculum-
curricula) and Greek origin (analysis-analyses and phenomenon-phenomena). There are also
loanwords mainly from French, Italian and Hebrew which take a foreign plural form: the
French words chateaux and tableaux, the Italian words virtuoso-virtuosi and spaghetti from
Italian spaghetto and the Hebrew words kibbutz-kibbutzim and cherub-cherubim.

In English there are also few nouns which do not show number contrast. This may be becose
they are either singular invariable nouns or plural invariable nouns. With regards to singular
invariable nouns, non-count nouns such as health and dust are invariable. However, many
concrete non-count nouns can be reclassified as count nouns, and therefore, can have plural
forms as in cheeses meaning types of cheese and wines meaning types of wine.

Most proper nouns are generally singular except in few cases which they are plural as in the
Alps and the Netherlands. According to Huddleston and Pullum (2002:1595) proper nouns may
also appear in plural either to refer to two or more people with the same name as in there are
five Marys in our class or to refer to a whole family as the Hudsons have invited us over. In
such cases, they argue that the base always remains unchanged in both speech and writing,
and takes the regular suffix: for instance the Wolf family would be referred as the Wolfs (not
the Wolves*) and people called Mary can be referred to collectively as the Marys (not the
Maries*).

Words denoting natural phenomena are normally singular, but they can be pluralized for
intensification as in the open waters of the ocean and the first snows of winter. Also,
adjectives which are nominalized and function as abstract noun heads are singular as in the
unknown or the unreal.

There are also few numbers which end in –s and are invariable singular. Nouns which refer to
disciplines or subjects such as athletics, physics, mathematics, acoustics… Also, certain illnesses
and diseases such as measles or mumps are often in the singular. However, some speakers also
accept the plural of these nouns. Certain games ending in –s are also treated as singular such
as billiards, darts, dominoes, draughts…

With regard to plural invariable nouns, there are nouns which belong to the so-called group of
summation plurals. These words are nouns denoting articles of clothes, tools and instruments
consisting of two equal parts joined together as in jeans, glasses and scissors. Number contrast
may be achieved through the form “a pair of” as in she bought a pair of nice jeans.

Pluralia tantum are nouns which are found only in the plural. These words are unmarked if
there is not an overt plural marker such as people, cattle and poultry or marked if they do have
an overt plural marker such as thanks, outskirts and leftovers.
Also adjectives functioning as heads of a noun phrase and referring to people or nationalities
are used in the plural as in the French are very sophisticated.

Group or collective nouns may be used as either singular or plural as in. If the focus is on the
group as a collection of individuals, they tend to be used in the plural. This is in fact more
common in British English my family are nice, since in American English collective nouns
usually take the singular as in my family is nice. The same case occurs with sport teams without
a plural marker: in British English the plural is preferred as in England are winning, whereas
American English tends to move towards the singular as in England has won the match.

2. Quantifiers

Quantifiers in English can be divided into three main groups: numerals, indefinite pronouns/
determiners and partitive constructions.

Numerals

Numerals may be ordinal numbers, cardinal numbers and fractions or decimals. Numerals can
be considered an open class, in the sense that there is an infinite number of them, and at the
same time closed class, in that they are mutually exclusive and new numerals cannot be
created in the same ways as new nouns. Numerals function as pronouns or determiners.

Cardinal numbers refer to definite quantities as in there are twenty-three persons. Numbers
from one to thirteen are unsystematic, whereas numbers from fourteen and ninety-nine are
systematic because they are formed by adding regular elements to the other numbers
although there are some slight variations such as twenty, forty, fifteen and fifty. There are also
different ways of expressing the numerical absence of quantity such as nil, nought, zero, oh,
love zip and scretch which are used depending on the context they appear. The cardinals
hundred, thousand, million, etc are used in the singular when accompanied by a numeral as in
seven thousand dollars. Cardinal numbers can be pre-modified by intensifiers as in he is nearly
twenty years old.

Ordinal numbers refer to the position of a number in a sequence. The first three ordinals are
first, second and third. The ordinals up to the cardinal twenty are formed by adding ‘th’ to the
cardinal numerals such as eleventh, fourteenth… Then from the ordinal twentieth onwards,
the tree first ordinals of each sequence of ten are formed by adding the ordinals first, second
and third as in twenty-first, thirty-second, fourty-third, whereas the rest are formed by adding
the -th ending as in forty-fourth, sixty-sixth… ordinal numbers can function either as
determiners or pronouns and the can be used along with a cardinal numeral. In such case, the
ordinal numeral is usually first as in the first three months.

Fractions and decimals are used to express proportions of whole numbers such as one half,
one third, three eights… Decimals are written with a decimal point or period (2.5), not a
comma as in Spanish or Catalan and they are pronounced indicating the location of the period
as in two point five seconds.

Indefinite pronouns and determiners

Indefinite pronouns and determiners are used to express quantity. They are called indefinite
because they refer to one or more unspecified beings, objects or places. They can be divided
morphologically into compound pronouns and of-pronouns and they have one of the four
syntactic functions: universal, assertive, non-assertive and negative. Note that many of these
words can function as other parts of speech too, depending on context. For example, in many
disagree with his views the word "many" functions as an indefinite pronoun, while in many
people disagree with his views it functions as a quantifier (a type of determiner) that qualifies
the noun "people".

The indefinite pronouns or determiners share three main characteristics: they can be followed
by a partitive of phrase as in some of them passed the exam. They can function as noun
phrases, replacing other nominal constructions as in many people are right-handed but some
are left handed. They are identical to their corresponding determiner, with the exception of
none.

Within the group of indefinite pronouns we can distinguish between universal pronouns,
assertive pronouns, non-assertive pronouns and negative pronouns: the universal pronouns
are all, both, each and every. Both refers to two elements, whereas all refers to quantities of
three or more, therefore they are used in the plural as in all (of the) girls are happy. Each and
every have a distributive function, referring to members of a group individually and not as a
group. This is why they are used in the singular as in each football player has to train hard.

Assertive pronouns have assertive value in that they confirm the truth of a given proposition.
The assertive pronoun some is used both as a pronoun and a determiner as in you’ll find some
in the table or there is some milk in the fridge and it is also used with count and non-count
nouns as in some day or some sugar. Within the assertive pronouns there is also the subgroup
of multal and paucal quantifiers which include many, much, a few and a little. These quantifiers
show a similar distribution: many (a large number) contrasts with a few (a small number) and
much (a large amount) contrasts with a little (a small amount). These forms share the
peculiarity that they are gradable and therefore they can be accompanied by degree adverbs
as in I’ve got very little left and they also have comparative and superlative forms: many and
much have the comparative more and the superlative most, whereas a few has fewer and
fewest and less has lesser and least for the comparative and superlative respectively. The
quantifiers much and many are found in present day English usage with non-assertive force,
and therefore they are more commonly found in negative and interrogative sentences. Other
assertive quantifiers include one, half, enough and several.

The non-assertive pronouns are any and either. The principal superficial markers of non-
assertion are negative, interrogative and conditional clauses. However, in any case the choice
some and any or their respective compound pronouns is governed by the basic meaning of the
sentences. For instance, in the sentence has somebody called? we actually suppose that a
person has called, whereas in the sentence has anybody called? this supposition is not present.
This is also the case of offers and invitations as in would you like some coffee? In these case
acceptance is presupposed. The pronouns any and either differ in that any represents a choice
between three or more options, whereas wither has a dual meaning.
Compound pronouns are formed by a determiner morpheme (every, some, any and no) and a
nominal morpheme (-one, -body, thing and how). Compound pronouns are regular in
formation in the exception that no one is spelled as two separate words. Universal pronouns
with personal reference are everybody and everyone, whereas the pronoun everything has a
non-personal reference. Assertive compound pronouns with personal reference are somebody
and someone and with non-personal reference something and somehow. The non-assertive
pronouns anybody and anyone are used with personal reference whereas the pronouns
anything and anyhow are used with non personal reference. Finally, negative pronouns with
personal reference are nobody and no one while the negative pronoun with non-personal
reference is nothing.

All these compound pronouns are singular, although they may refer to more than one thing or
person as in everybody is ready. Compound pronouns may also be used with a genitive ‘s as in
is this anybody’s coat? Compound pronouns can also be post-modified by prepositional
phrases or relative clauses as in he’s just someone I met yesterday. Adjectival modification is
also possible and it is added after the noun as in there’s someone new in our class.

The negative pronouns are no, none and either. Few and little are distinct from a few and a
little because they are negative in meaning. For instance, the sentence there is a little interest
is seen as positive because there is more interest than expected, whereas in the sentence the
is little interest indicates that the speaker somehow regrets that there should be more interest
than there is. The forms few and little can be intensified as in very few students will pass the
exam. Also the forms, no and none can be intensified by postmodifiers as in there is no money
at all.

Partitive constructions denote a part of the whole and therefore they work as quantifiers. Both
count and non-count nouns can be used with partitive expressions, with the construction a +
noun + of. There are general partitives which are used in many contexts. The most common
partitive construction is a piece of and it is used in both concrete and abstract nouns. General
partitives may also be used with non-count nouns to achieve countability as in a bit of paper
and a piece of advice. Countability can also be achieved through reclassification of the non-
count item: two cups of coffee and two coffees. The general partitive a piece of cannot be used
with plural count nouns because these take partitives which are often quite specific: a crowd
of people, a bouquet of flowers and a bunch of keys. There are also other more limited
partitive constructions which are used only in specific contexts. In the case of animals, there
are several general partitives such as a flock of or a herd of, but there are also a series of
species-specific partitives which include a pride of lions, a school of whales and a smack of
jellyfish. Partitives are often used to express specific measurements as in a pint of beer, an
acre of land ans a ton od iron.

In conclusion, the learning of English as a second language has as its main aim the gaining of
communicative competence, which is the ability to use language correctly and appropriately to
accomplish communication goals. The notion and expression of quantity is an important aspect
to take into consideration in any language, since we, as rational human beings, are
predetermined to measure and quantify the object, things and ideas that surround us.
Therefore we must to this issue the importance it deserves and work with our students in
order to help them acquire a grasp of the expression of quantity. In class, we should present
this topic using real materials that include constructions which express quantity and its various
ways to quantify nouns. We should concentrate in real uses of the structures in context and
we should also teach the students some basic rules that govern its use, so that they may
reflect and obtain a reasoned explanation of the points we previously studied. Also, taking into
account that we face a broad grammatical point, we will need several working sessions as well
as several different texts to present the aspects we want to highlight in each case.

Bibliography

Quirk, R. 1973: A University Grammar of English. London: Longman

Thomson, A. J. and Martinet, A. V. 1986: A Practical English Grammar. Oxford: Oxford

University Press

Foley, M and Hall, D. 2004: Advanced Learner’s Grammar. A self-study reference and practice
book with answers. Essex: Longman

Swan, M. 2004: Practical English Usage (new edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Huddleston, R. 1989: Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press

Huddleston, R. & Pullum, G: 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Quirk, R, et all: 1985: A comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman