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1.4.2. The non-productive ways of the number formation

On a par with the productive suffix -e(s) there exist some non-productive means of expressing the number op­position. They comprise a) vowel interchange: man men, woman — women, goose geese, foot feet, mou­se mice in simple nouns and in compounds ending in -man without any change in pronunciation: postman — postmen, rifleman riflemen, note that words like Norman, German are simple and form their plural in the productive way; b) the archaic suffix -en, in some words together with vowel change: ox oxen, child children, c) homonymy of singular and plural forms: sheep, deer, fish, trout, cod, salmon, pike, swine, means, aircraft,

series, species, etc. d) special nounal suffixes inherent to Latin, Greek and French borrowings which in turn may be classified as follows:

1) singular nouns ending in -us in the plural have -i radius — radii, cactus — cacti, nucleus — nuclei, terminus — termini;

2) some singular nouns ending in -us in the plural have -era/ora : genus genera, corpus corpora,

3) singular nouns ending in -a in plural have -ae amoeba — amoebae, antenna — antennae, formula — formulae,

4) singular nouns ending in -on or -um take in the plural the ending -a : phenomenon — phenomena, curriculum — curricula, datum — data, me­dium media, stratum — strata,

5) singular nouns ending in -is in the plural have -es axis — axes, basis — bases, crisis — crises, hypothesis — hypotheses, oasis — oases;

6) singular nouns ending -ex or -ix in the plural acquire -ices : index indices, ap­pendix — appendices, matrix — matrices;

7) singular nouns ending in -eau in the plural take -eaux : plateau — plateaux, bureau — bureaux.

A limited number of nouns may have both productive and non-productive plural forms: formula — formulas formulae, brother — brothers brethren, penny — pennies — pence, genius — geniuses — genii, index — indexes — indices, staff staffs — staves. Sometimes plurals of the kind differ in meaning: — brothers — «male relatives with the same parents»,

brethren «male members of a religious group»; pen­nies — «coins», pence «amount of money»; geniuses — «men of genius», genii «spirits»; indexes «alpha­betical lists at the back o'f books», indices (and indexes) — «the system of numbers by which prices, costs and so on can be compared to a former level, usually fixed at 100», staffs — «military staffs or staffs of an institution», sta­ves — «sticks».

1.4.3. To conclude: as it has already been shown, the category of Number is manifested in countables, i.e. ba­sically common concrete class nouns as well as in some proper and abstract nouns which form their plurals by either productive or non-productive means. Yet in quite a number of cases the category of Number turns out to be unexpressed. This group of nouns consists of a) uncoun-tables (See 1.2.3.) and b) nouns used only in plural: clothes, trousers, scissors, spectacles, eyeglasses.

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