Griffin Kelton
Yuppie jet-setter.
Foodie. Early adopter. Technophile. Traveler. Entrepreneur.
ENTJ. Tea enthusiast.
Flights to date for 2012: 10 (2011: 30+).
Business Development Coordinator, Capital Teas (Annapolis, MD)
Founder of Tea Time Tuesday and Cedarville Tea House.
B.A. in Marketing from Cedarville University.
Ever wonder why words such as “pants”, “shorts”, and “scissors” are always plural but refer to one object? Wonder no more. These words are referred to as defective nouns or more accurately plurale tantum, Latin for plural only. These words are never seen in a singular form because they do not have one. English is not the only language with pluralia tantum (plural form). Swedish has inälvor (“intestines”) and Danish has hersenen (“brains”).
On the other hand, there are also nouns that only appear in singular forms, such as “wealth” and “dust.” These are known as singulare tantum. These nouns are mass nouns (or uncountable, non-count nouns). In other words, they refer to an entity of unbounded mass and cannot be modified by a number and cannot be combined with indefinite articles (a or an). Rather, they are quantified in relative terms—e.g., 1 liter of water.
The pluralia tantum are similar to the singularia tantum in that they also need a measure word to quantify them. That is why you always hear glasses, scissors, and trousers proceeded with “a pair of.” In other languages, this has led to the evolution of new numerical forms specially created for this usage.
Sources: Wikipedia, Grammar Girl
