Page 99 - Combine

International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470

might be expected to be shown in the grammar of all or most trousers, shears, tongs, etc., which are formally plural, but
languages. cannot be enumerated except by using another noun a pair of
-; this is formally like the individuators of the mass nouns, a
More important, perhaps, is the need to distinguish between cake of soap, a pat of butter. Secondly, although English uses
individual and mass. This is a distinction that English makes
the plural form with numbers above one, not all languages
quite clearly, though it is often ignored in the grammar
do. In Welsh, for instance, 'four dogs' is pedwar ci, though
books. The category is referred to as COUNT ABILITY, with 'dog' is ci and 'dogs' cwn. In Tigre there are many mass nouns
the noun classes of COUNTABLES and UNCOUNTABLES or which have a singulative (individuating) form made by a
COUNT and MASS. Examples of count nouns are cat and book,
suffix, e. g. nahab 'bees', but nahbat 'a bee'. But the
while butter and petrol are mass nouns. Formally the two
singulative form is the form used with all numerals - not
classes are easily distinguished. Count nouns alone may merely 'one' hatte nahbat 'one bee', satas nahbat 'three bees',
occur in the singular with the indefinite article a - a cat (but
etc. What seems to be important here is not plurality, but
not *a butter), while only mass nouns may occur with no
individuation.
article or with the indefinite quantifier some (not some in the
sense of 'some or other') - Butter is ..., some butter (but not The problems of gender as a lexico-semantic category in
*Cat is ..., * some cat). Some nouns, e. g. cake, fish belong to Uzbek appear in comparing words in three languages:
both classes[4;137].
English: mother, sister, girl, lady, woman, Helen, poetess, di-
The semantic difference between these two classes is clear rectress, aunt, hen, cow.
enough. The count nouns 'individuate' - they indicate
individual specimens, while the mass nouns refer to a Uzbek:она, опа, қиз, аёл, хоним, Ҳалима, шоира, раққоса,
артистка, бия, хола
quantity that is not individuated in this way. But the
distinction does not correspond closely to any semantic Russian: мать, девушка, женщина, сестра, Катя,
distinction in the world of experience, and this should be no поэтесса, сударыня, балерина, учительница, тетя,
cause for surprise. It is true that liquids are always referred корова, курица.
to by mass nouns because they cannot be individuated.
There is no obvious object that can be described as *a water. Uzbek nouns denoting male and female sex are of no
grammatical significance in contrast to English and Russian
But there is no explanation in semantic terms why butter is a ones. The grammatical significance of English nouns
mass noun while jelly is count as well as mass; there is no denoting male and female sexis observed when they are
semantic reason why we can refer to a single mass of jelly as replaced by the pronouns he and she:[5;25]
a jelly but not to a mass of butter as *a butter. On the other
I have a brother. He is a doctor. I have a sister. She is a
hand, while cake is count as well as mass, for the obvious
teacher.
reason that individual cakes can be recognised, bread is only
mass we cannot talk of *a bread, but have to use a different Some of the nouns denoting living beings do not express sex:
word, loaf. A foreigner could not guess, then, whether such 1. human beings: doctor, friend, cousin, teacher, stranger,
words as soap, trifle, cheese would be count nouns in English. neighbour, student, clerk, etc.
He has, moreover, to learn the 'individuating' nouns loaf of 2. animals: wolf, dog, bear, eagle, ass, goat, elephant, etc.
bread, cake of soap, pat of butter.
If we desire to indicate the sex of what is expressed by those
The count mass distinction is a fairly clear one - it classifies nouns, a word denoting the sex is added to them: boy-friend,
English nouns, though some, e. g. fish, belong to both classes. girl friend; man-servant, maid-servant; man-doctor, woman-
But mass nouns can, nevertheless, function as count nouns. doctor; male elephant, female elephant; he-dog, she-dog; male
Two obvious functions are, first, the use of such expressions (tom-, he-) cat, female- (pussy- she-) cat; he- (billy-) goat, she-
as a butter, a petrol to mean 'a kind of butter' or 'a kind of (nanny-) goat; dog- (he-) wolf, she-wolf, etc.
petrol', and secondly a coffee, a beer to mean 'a cup of coffee'
In Spoken English there is a tendency to associate the names
and 'a glass of beer'. It is best to treat these nouns as
'basically' mass nouns and these functions as types of of animals with the female or male sex.
1. When the noun indicates the sex of the animal it is
individuation that can be applied to them for specific
generally spoken of as he (lion, tiger, bull, etc) or she
purposes - to indicate kinds and, with liquids, familiar
quantities. Similarly, count nouns that refer to creatures may (lioness, tigress, cow, etc.);
function as mass nouns to indicate the meat; we find not The tiger approached the camp: his dreadful roar made us
merely familiar usages such as chicken, rabbit, fish but can shudder.
also freely form mass nouns elephant, crocodile and even dog
(The Chinese eat dog) to refer to the meat. (But we have, of The bull lowered his head.
course, the specific words befif, mutton, pork, venison for the Our dog is called Jenny; she is of a very good breed.
flesh of cattle, sheep, pigs and deer.)
2. When the sex of the animal is not indicated by the noun,
Semantically, mass nouns are nearer to plurals than to nouns denoting the larger and bolder animals are
singular forms of count nouns. This accounts for the anomaly generally associated with the male sex (elephant, horse,
of oats and wheat - there is little difference, unless it is dog, eagle, etc), while nouns denoting the smaller and
clearly specified, between a large number of grains and a weaker ones with the female (cat, hare, parrot, etc):
mass of them. In some languages liquids are not mass nouns,
The elephant lifted his mighty trunk.
but plurals, e. g. in Bilin the word for 'water'.
The cat has upset her milk.
The term 'count' is relevant to the fact that most count nouns
can be counted - one book, two/three/four books. But there In English inanimate things or abstract notions are usually
are two reservations. First, English has the words scissors, personified and the nouns denoting them are referred to as

ID: IJTSRD40067 | Special Issue on Innovative Development of Modern Research Page 94