Plurale tantum

A plurale tantum is a noun that only occurs in the plural.

The term is a traditional term used for words which (a) end in a plural affix, (b) have a plural meaning, and (c) do not have a singular counterpart.

Term properties

The plural of plurale tantum is pluralia tantum (see section "Origin").

Examples

Examples of English pluralia tantum are trousers, scissors, scales.

In Dutch plural nouns can be formed by adding the suffix -en (hond-honden 'dog(s)'). But some nouns such as hersenen 'brains', annalen 'annals' and watten 'cotton wadding' have a plural meaning, end in the plural affix -en, and have no singular counterpart (*hersen, *annaal, *wat).

Origin

Tantum is from Latin and means 'only', and plurale is the Latin form of plural. So plurale tantum is originally a Latin phrase meaning 'plural only'. The Latin plural of plurale is pluralia.

See also

• duale tantum
• reciprocum tantum

Links

Utrecht Lexicon of Linguistics

References

• Scalise, S. 1984. Generative Morphology, Foris, Dordrecht.
• Vraciu, Ariton. 1976. Considérations sur l'emploi des noms pluralia tantum dans les langues baltiques, slaves et finno-ougriennes. Acta Baltico-Slavica 9: 27-37. (Wrocław)