Usage in Non-English Languages
Pluralia tantum vary arbitrarily between languages. For example, Swedish en sax ("a scissor") is not a plurale tantum, while in English it is (scissors).
In some other languages, rather than quantifying a plurale tantum noun with a measure word, special numeral forms are used in such cases. In Polish, for example, "one pair of eyeglasses" is expressed as either jedne okulary (one-plur. glasses-plur.) or jedna para okularów (one-sing. pair-sing. glasses-gen. plur.). For larger quantities, "collective numeral" forms are available: troje drzwi (three doors), pięcioro skrzypiec (five violins). Compare these to the ordinary numeral forms found in Polish: trzy filmy / pięć filmów (three films / five films)
Russian деньги = "money" originally had a singular деньга which meant a copper coin worth half a kopeck.
Read more about this topic: Plurale Tantum
Famous quotes containing the words usage and/or languages:
“I am using it [the word perceive] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)
“Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute.”
—J.G. (James Graham)