Singular or Plural WHAT? 4

[kjv1611]

I've never really thought about it before, but when I was asked a grammar question, I was trying to explain something, and wanted to narrow down "singular or plural" into one word. So, is there a word that I'm just forgetting? Singular what? Plural what?

The word, plurality, came to mind, but that isn't it. Plurality just covers plural, not both. Singularity is for singular..

So, any thoughts/references? It's not an earth shattering important item, but did get me to thinking.

"But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 15:57

 

[SamBones]

As Lionel once sang...

"Once ... Twice ... Thrice a lady!"

Not quite the same, eh.

 

[ChrisHirst]

Sure tetrad is used in some very specific instances.

But it is not a term that is generally used to mean four of anything, such as a "tetrad core processor"

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
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[mintjulep]

Without more context into the original use I think you are trying to describe quantity.

 

[Scott24x7]

Well, apparently none of you have ever encountered the mindbogglingly insane counting system in Japanese. It has answers for EVERYTHING you've all mentioned above. And then some.

For instance, if you're just "counting" (1,2,3,4) you get Ichi, Ni, San, Shi (Yon) (See we've already gone off the rails as there are 2 ways to say "4" as there are with "8" as well, and that's without getting into the "1st, 2nd, 3rd" type scenarios).

If we want "position" (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) we get Ichi-ban, Ni-ban, San-ban, Yon-bon (you never say Shi-ban, just a rule...).

But then the fun begins... if we are counting flat objects, we get:
Imai (Pronounced EEmy), Nimai, Sanmai, Yonmai

Or for real fun, People:
Hitari, Futari, San-nin, Yon-nin (this one is important, as you NEVER you SHI (pronounced she) here, as she-nin means "dead", not 4 people).

"General" counting (i.e. when you have NO CLUE what rule you are supposed to use, go with:
Hitatsu, Futatsui, Mittsu, Yottsu, Itsutsu etc. (right?) (Though here and the "people" thing are the only place we see "Hi and Fu" as 1 and 2).

I kid you not, there are different ways of counting for all the following (not exhaustive):
1) Copies of printed periodicals (bu) (as in "shinbun" which means "newspaper"
2) When counting machines (cars, bicycles, blenders, hard drives) (dai)
3) Things you drink from (vaguely) also ships and some sea creatures (shellfish) (pai or bai depending on what precedes it)
4) Small animals (like dogs & cats, but not cows and whales) (piki or biki, depending on preceding number)
5) Floors in a building (kai)
6) Flat surfaces (big ones, not like paper and photos, as that was Mai already mentioned) (men)

There are tons of others, these are the ones I can remember (i.e. that I use, the rest I ignore, and just go with the "tsu" variation like "Futatsu", but that actually ends at 10 which just becomes "to" (like toe).

It's crazy. There is even a way of counting swords... Which is "furi" so 1,2,3,4 swords becomes (ifuri, nifuri, sanfuri, yonfuri...)
I don't remember the excat number, but when you take into consideration counting for time (which in fairness we do in English as well, 1 minute, 1 second are both different), but going to that extent, there are over 100 ways to "count" and very specific to objects which are not intuitive (remember the fish and boats reference above...)
It was very daunting when I was learning (HA!) the language.


Best Regards,
Scott
ATS, CDCE

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[ChrisHirst]

That probably explains Kamikaze pilots. None of then could bother trying for more than one "kill" because they couldn't work out how to say it.

Chris.

Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
Time flies like an arrow, however, fruit flies like a banana.
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[Gunnaro]

Speaking of counting, you don't have to go far east before it gets weird.

Danish (and French) use the vigesimale system for numbers 50-99 (60-99 French)

In Danish, 78,50 spoken is "otte og halvfjerds, halvtreds".

Looks pretty short, but this is what it really means:
"eight and half a score short of four scores, half a score short of three scores".

Kind regards

Gunnar
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Hippos have bad eyesight, but considering their weight, it’s hardly their problem