False singular
Encyclopedia
In English grammar
, a false singular occurs when a singular
noun
ending in a s or z sound is understood as a plural
from which a new singular is constructed. The false singular is a form of back-formation
.
Some false singulars become standard English. For example, pea
was originally a false singular from pease pl. peasen. (The old word remains in the phrase pease porridge.)
The non-standard historical forms Chinee and Portuguee are also false singulars, from Chinese and Portuguese.
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
, a false singular occurs when a singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
noun
Noun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
ending in a s or z sound is understood as a plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
from which a new singular is constructed. The false singular is a form of back-formation
Back-formation
In etymology, back-formation is the process of creating a new lexeme, usually by removing actual or supposed affixes. The resulting neologism is called a back-formation, a term coined by James Murray in 1889...
.
Some false singulars become standard English. For example, pea
Pea
A pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the pod fruit Pisum sativum. Each pod contains several peas. Peapods are botanically a fruit, since they contain seeds developed from the ovary of a flower. However, peas are considered to be a vegetable in cooking...
was originally a false singular from pease pl. peasen. (The old word remains in the phrase pease porridge.)
The non-standard historical forms Chinee and Portuguee are also false singulars, from Chinese and Portuguese.