Home > Parts of Speech > Nouns > Plural
Plural
There are three ways that plural can be formed in English.
1. One can add something to the word or phrase to make it plural (cat vs cats, fish vs. school of fish)
2. One can take away something from the word or phrase to make it plural (piece of furniture vs. furniture)
3. One can replace part of the word or phrase with something else (cactus vs. cacti, where the -us is replaced by an -i).
These three patterns are respectively referred to as:
1. Additive
WOP + x = plural (where WOP is the word or phrase in question and x is the variable being added to the WOP. using the
example above: cat + s = cats)
2. Subtractive
WOP - x = plural (piece of furniture - piece of = furniture)
3. Replacive
WOP - x + y = plural (where part of the WOP is subtracted from the WOP and a new element is added to it,
giving us the plural. For example: cactus - us + i = cacti)
All three of these patterns are
utilized in Sinhala. Within these patterns, Sinhala distinguishes
between inanimate nouns and animate nouns.
Animacy
Animacy refers to the life-status of a noun. For example, the noun "girl" is considered to be an animate noun because a girl is a living being. "Frog" is also considered animate. As are "cat", "man", and "bird". Words such as "book", "food", and "hope", however, are not considered animate, but inanimate because they do not refer to living beings.
Recap: to make plural in Sinhala, there are 3 groups, each of which could potentially have 2 subgroups within them: Animate and Inanimate:
1. Additive
a. Animate
b. Inanimate
2. Subtractive
a. Animate
b. Inanimate
3. Replacive
a. Animate
b. Inanimate.
