1 Chapter One : Irregular Plural 1-1- Irregular Plural : Definition. English nouns are inflected for grammatical number and meaning that if they are of the cou- ntable type, they generally have different forms of singular and plural. The vast majority of nouns in the English language are made plural by adding an "s" or "es" to the end of the word. For example dog, book, watch, door, etc. are just some of the millions of words that become plural with the simple rule of an "s" or " es " ( book, dogs, watches, etc ) ( Quirk and etal 2007 : 76 7 ). However, certain nouns have irregular plural which don t behave in this standard way. There are some common types of irregular and some words have no plural for at all ( Ibid ). 1
2 The irregular plural is formed through many major devices such as : vowel change, ( r ) en, consonant change and soon. For example : '1' '2' '3' '4' '5' man men foot feet child children half halves house houses Some words borrowed from latin and Greek keep their foreign plural, or there may be alter- nation with regular plural forms, for example : '6' '7' '8' '9' '10' alumnus alumni locus loci maximum maxima algo algae axis axes '11' criterion criteria '12' index indices '13' stratum strata ( Azar, 1989 : 2001 ). 2
3 Irregular plurals are by definition un pred ictable. Where as the plural / Iz / in horses, /z/ in dogs, and / s / in cats can be predicted from the final sound in the singular nouns, there is no indication in the written or spoken form, for example, sheep, and ox to suggest their plurals are sheep, and oxen. The particular plurals of these nouns have to be learned as individual lexical units ( leech,1987:305). 1-2 Types of Irregular Plural. There are many types of irregular plural which are divided according to certain devices or changes that occurred within a noun ( Ibid ). 3
4 1-2-1 Voicing and -s Plural Some nouns which, in the singular, end in the voiceless fricative / Ɵ / spelled ( - th) form plurals with the corresponding voiced fricative /Ɉ/ followed by / z /. The spelling of the plural is regular / Ɵs / : -s /s/ - /z/- th / Ɵ / -- - ths / Ɉz /, for example '14' '15' '16' path - paths mouth - mouths booth - booths There is considerable indeterminacy between voicing and non voicing in many nouns ending in -th. With a consonant letter befor the -th, the pronunciation of the plural is regular for example ( Nelson, 2002 : 406-7 ). '17' berth - berths '18' length - lengths '19' birth - births 4
5 1-2-2 Mutation Mutation is the second type of irregular plural which means the plural is formed by a change of vowel, in the following seven nouns: 20 - man - men / man / ~ / men / 21 - woman - women / wumən / ~ / wimin / 22 - foot - feet / fu:t / ~ / fi:t / 23 - tooth - teeth / tu:ɵ / ~ / ti:ɵ / 24 - goose - geese / gu:z / ~ / gi:z / 25 - mouse - mice / maus / ~ / mais / 26 - louse - lice / laus / ~ / lais / ( Red ford, 1982 : 96 ). Compounds with unstressed. man, as in : English man ~ English men have no difference in in pronunciation at all between singular and plural, since both are pronounced ( mən ), similarly fire man ~ fire men, post man ~ post men ( Quirk. etal, 1987 : 306-7 ). 5
6 1-2-3 The -' En ' Plural The -En plural is the third type that occurs with three nouns : 27 - brother - brethren with mutation as well as the "en" ending is limited to brother meaning ' fellow member of a religious society ; other wise regular brothers. 27 - child - children ( with vowel change / ai / ~ / I / and ~r added ). 28 - Ox ~ Oxen, in AME, the plural oxes is also sometimes found. ) ( Rad ford, 1982 : 96 ). 1-2-4 Zero Plural Some nouns have the same spoken and weit- ten form in both singular and plural. 6
7 It is to tally different invariable nouns which are either singular or plural not both ; and, on the other hand, zero plural nouns, which can be both singular and plural for example : 29 - This sheep is mine ( Ibid : 97 ). 30 - All those sheep are ours. There are several sub types of zero plural such as " animal names ", " nationality nouns " and quantitative nouns which illustrated below ( Algeo, 1973 : 290 ). 1-2-3 Animal Names. Animal names normally have the regular plural for example : 31 - cow - cows 32 - dog - dogs 7
8 However, many animal names have two Plural : -s and zero plurals e. g., duck and herring. Zero plural tends to be used partly by people who are especially concerned with the animals, partly when the animals referred to certain use by people. referred to in the mass as game : Have you ever shot duck? We change only a few fish. The regular plural is used to denote different individuals, species for example : 35 - Can you see the ducks on the pond? The fishes of the Mediterranean. In some cases usage is variable for example 8
9 He caught five { The degree of variability with animal names is shown by : a - Regular plural by inflected (e)s / s / / z / / Iz /. ( bird, cow, eagle, hen, hawk, monkey rabbit ) b - Usually regular plurals : celk, crab, duck ( zero only with wild bird ) c - Both regular and zero plural ( antelope, reindeer, fish, flounder, herring Shrimp, wood cock ) d - Usually zero plural : bison, grouse, quail, salmon, swine 9
11 ( the normal word pig which always has regular Plural ) e - Always zero plural. ( sheep, deer, cod ( Algeo, 1973 : 290 ). 1-2-3-2 Nationality Nouns Nationality nouns end with - ese also have zero plural for example : Chinese - five Chinese ( Ibid ). 2-1 Irregular Plural in Other Languages. English has borrowed a great many words from classical latin and classical Greek. The general trend with loan words is to word what is called Anglicization or naturalization, 11
11 that is, the re- formation of the word and its inflections as normal English words. Many nouns ( particularly ones from latin ) have retained their original plurals for some times after are introduced. other nouns have become anglicized, taking on the normal "s" ending. In some cases both forms are still competing ( Sidney, 2002 : 97 ). The choice of a form can often depend on Context : for a scholar, the plural of : appendix is appendices ( following the original language ) ; for some physicians, the plural of appendix is appendixes. Like wise, a radio or radar engineer works with antennas, but an entomologist deals with antennas ( Ibid : 30 ). 11
12 1-3-1 French Nouns Some nouns of French origin add an -x which may be silent or prom ounced / z / : for example: 36 - bean - beanx or beans 37 - tableau - tableaux or tableaus 1-3-2 Italian Nouns In Italian nouns, not ably technical terms in music and art, often retain the Italian plurals : 38 - cello - celli Foreign terms may take native plurals forms, especially when the user is addressing an andience familiar with the language. In such case, the conventionally formed English 12
13 Plural may may sound awkward or be confusing ( Glas gow, 2003 : 86 7 ). 1-3-3 Nouns of Hebrew Origin Nouns in Hebrew origin add im or -ot ( generally m/f ) according to native rules, or just -s : 39 - Cherub - Cherubim or Cherubs 40 - Kibbutz - Kibbutzim or Kibbutzes -Ot is pronounced Os ( with unvoiced ) in the Ashkenazi dialect ( Ibid ). 13
14 1-3-4 Japanese Nouns Many nouns of Japanese origin have no plural form and do not change as : 41 - Otaku - Otaku ( Huddleston, 2002 : 83 ). 14
15 Conclusion This paper is an attempt to study a central aspect of language which is irregular plural. In English, there are hundreds of nouns that donot follow the standard rules for pluralization. There are no easy way to remember them, so they generally have to be memorized. Irregular plurals has several kinds as _en, zero, voicing and mutation. Finally, the last section is about irregular plural in other foreign language as Latin, Greek and so on. 15
16 BIBLIOGRAPHY Allen, Margaret. ( 1978 ) Morphological Investigation. London : University of Connecticut. Biber, D. and ( 2007 ). Grammar of Spoken and written English. London : University of College. Qurik, R. ( 1985 ). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English language. London : British Library. Green baum, S.( 1980 ). An Introduction to English Grammar. London : Library of congress. 16
17 Snlkirk, Elizabeth. ( 1982 ). The Syntax of words. Cambridge : Black well press. 17