In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two", or "three or more"). In many languages including English, the number categories are singular and plural. Some languages also have a dual number or other arrangements.
The count distinctions typically, but not always, correspond to the actual count of the referents of the marked noun or pronoun.
The word "number" is also used in linguistics to describe the distinction between certain grammatical aspects that indicate the number of times an event occurs, such as the semelfactive aspect, the iterative aspect, etc. For that use of the term, see "Grammatical aspect".
Read more about Grammatical Number: Overview, Geographical Distribution, Formal Expression of Number, Semantic Vs. Grammatical Number, Auxiliary Languages
Famous quotes containing the words grammatical and/or number:
“Evil is simply
a grammatical error:
a failure to leap
the precipice
between he
and I.”
—Linda Pastan (b. 1932)
“Mining today is an affair of mathematics, of finance, of the latest in engineering skill. Cautious men behind polished desks in San Francisco figure out in advance the amount of metal to a cubic yard, the number of yards washed a day, the cost of each operation. They have no need of grubstakes.”
—Merle Colby, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)