Grammatical number in English nouns: an empirical and theoretical account

340 Pages·1992·19.87 MB·English

by  Mark A. Wickens

GRAMMATICAL NUMBER IN ENGLISH NOUNS
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND
HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE
General Editor
E.F. KONRAD KOERNER
(University of Ottawa)
Series IV - CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board
Henning Andersen (Los Angeles); Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles)
Thomas V. Gamkrelidze (Tbilisi); John E. Joseph (College Park, Md.)
Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin); Ernst Pulgram (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
E. Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Danny Steinberg (Tokyo)
Volume 76
Mark A. Wickens
Grammatical Number in English Nouns
GRAMMATICAL NUMBER IN
ENGLISH NOUNS
AN EMPIRICAL AND THEORETICAL ACCOUNT
MARK A. WICKENS
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
1992
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wickens, Mark A.
Grammatical number in English nouns: an empirical and theoretical account / Mark
A. Wickens.
p. cm. -- (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science.
Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763; v. 76)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English language — Number. 2. English language -- Noun.
I. Title. II. Series.
PE1216.W53 1992
425--dc20 91-35203
ISBN 90 272 3573 2 (Eur.)/l-55619-131-6 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1992 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O. Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • 821 Bethlehem Pike • Philadelphia, PA 19118 • USA
To my wife and children

Contents
ABBREVIATIONS AND INITIALISMS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER 1
Ailment names 33
CHAPTER 2
Liquid names 69
CHAPTER 3
Nouns in -ings 87
CHAPTER 4
The names of binary objects 99
CHAPTER 5
The abstract -s 149
CHAPTER 6
The external singulars 175
CHAPTER 7
Problems and prospects 221
CONCLUSION 233
APPENDICES 235
Appendix A 235
Appendix  236
Appendix  237
Appendix D 247
Appendix E 250
viii CONTENTS
Appendix F 265
Appendix G 268
Appendix H 271
Appendix I 272
Appendix J 277
Appendix  279
Appendix L 286
REFERENCES 287
INDEX 307
Abbreviations and initialisms of periodicals
and reference works
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Thomas Y. Crowell, 1944.  British Heart Journal.
ADS Archives of Dermatology and BJO British Journal of Ophthalmol
Syphilology. ogy.
AEH Archives of Environmental BLD Black's Law Dictionary: Defini
Health. tions of the Terms and Phrases
AHD American Heritage Dictionary of of American and English Juris
the English Language, ed. prudence, Ancient and Modern,
William Morris. Boston: Ameri­ by Henry Campbell Black. Rev.
can Heritage Publishing and 4th ed. by the publisher's editor­
Houghton Mifflin, 1970. ial staff. St. Paul, Minn.: West
AJL Australian Journal of Linguistics. Publishing, 1968.
AJM American Journal of Medicine. BMD Butterworths Medical Dictionary,
AJO American Journal of Ophthalmol ed. Macdonald Critchley. 2nd
ogy. ed. London: Butterworths, 1978.
AJOA American Journal of Optometry BNF British National Formulary,
and Archives of American Acad 1974-76. London: British
emy of Optometry. Medical Association and The
 Archives of Ophthalmology. Pharmaceutical Society of Great
ArchL Archivum Linguisticum. Britain, n.d.
AS American Speech. BNG Blakiston's New Gould Medical
ATS American Thesaurus of Slang: A Dictionary..., ed. Harold Wel­
Complete Reference Book of Col lington Jones, Normand L. Hoerr
loquial English, by Lester V. & Arthur Osol. Philadelphia:
Berrey & Melvin Van Den Bark. Blakiston, 1949.
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, BOLD Bouvier's Law Dictionary, by
1942. John Bouvier. Baldwin's century
BD Barnhart Dictionary of New Eng ed. Ed. William Edward Bald­
lish since 1963, by Clarence L. win. Cleveland: Banks-Baldwin
Barnhart, Sol Steinmetz & Law Publishing, 1934.