中文有没有复数

The concept of \"number\" existed in all kinds of languages around the word.While the expression form of number in different languages varies.So there is no denying that Chinese has plural marks.

The number here we mention is only the Singular(integer which does not exceed one )and Plural( integer which is more than one).As we all know that English is more complex than Chinese in this aspect.The nouns in English are classified as countable and uncountable nouns.And personal pronouns and countable nouns have the plural form.Different nouns and pronouns have different request for their modifier（including numeral,indefinite article and complex instructions adjectives.)If they are used as subjects,their predicates have to keep consistent with them in the point of number.the singular and plural form of the noun in English differs not only in grammatical function but also in meaning.For example,the word \"property\" mean the wealth a person own.While \"properties\" means characteristics and personality .The same difference also exists in the \"water\"and \"waters\".However,this phenomenon can not be seen in Chinese.also,a word can be as singular and plural at the same time in English .For instance,sheep,fish,means,clothes and so on.It is a typical feature for English ,which always confused second language learners too.

Although there is no symbol to distinguish plural in form ,Chinese has plural in concept indeed.Chinese Personal nouns has limitation of singular and plural in concept and form;while the request in grammatical function is less strict than

that in English.The reasons are listed as follows.1st,\"men\"is the only component to represent Chinese plural marks.And it can only be placed behind the

pronoun,nouns referred to people and a few personified nouns.2nd,almost all Chinese nouns can be modified by quantifiers,but some use quantitative quantifiers,some use the contrary one.3rd.Chinese quantifiers can be used not only to measure people,also the behavior and deed.Some Chinese quantifiers can make abstract and material nouns specialized and individualized.4th,Chinese predicate verbs(including\"be\")and adjectives which is used to be attributive have no corresponding form with complete set of singular and plural.Although Chinese pronoun and noun has its own way to represent \"number\"and its own rules to obey,it is more simply and free than English on the face of it .So people always underestimate its complexity.They can take the measure of

vocabulary,grammar,figure of speech to show the plural concept,not only plural morpheme--\"men\" .In fact ,The forms are various.There is no doubt that the collective nouns（such as family ,police,audience and so on ),collective quantifiers,monosyllabic nouns eclipsed form of quantifiers include the plural meaning.

In Chinese,plural in logic concept sometimes is not matched with

grammatical one,but sometimes it is .They are not equal with each other.In some dialect area,the singular in dialect may means the plural in standard Chinese pronunciation.The phrase of \"my country\"\"my city\"\"my party\"often appeared in the press.Actually,the word\"my\"means \"our\"in these phrases.If we translate them into English ,we have to use \"our\"instead of \"my\".Also in some area ,people always use the character--咱，But it does not have the same meaning of \"our\"in standard

Chinese pronunciation.It just means “I”.So people may misunderstand the meaning when taking to others in these areas and feel puzzled.

Now,let's compare the plural morpheme\"men\"in Chinese and \"s\"in English. In fact,Chinese personal pronouns do not have clear difference between singular and plural in remote age.The word \"men\" evolves from many Chinese characters and also goes through the period that singular and plural are not classified.And at last it developes as a plural morpheme .\"men\"can be placed both behind personal pronouns and behind the nouns referred to people and a few personified nouns which belongs to derived postfix.Therefore,this way to show the form of plural is regarded as vocabulary measure.Strictly speaking,Modern English plural nouns are not simply to add \"s\"to postfix .Due to the difference of the letter in postfix and the pronunciation,\"s\"can be transformed to \"es\"(dishes)\"ies\"(fancies)\"ves\" (thieves and knives) and so on.Also,people can use other forms if the words have irregular changes.such as,woman---women.datum--data,alumnus-- alumni .So,we can see that Chinese also has plural like English,but more simple than it.

Here I want to talk about \"men \" in details.Modern Chinese plural noun is generally no marks,\"men\"added after nouns is just a marked phenomenon of plural.As we all know that \"men\"is a plural marker in Chinese.Actually,its main effect is for the same inductive,but not to show the quantity.For example,\"the workers\" refers to a group of workers,and does not show the exact number .but we can know it is a plural .Maybe for this reason,if there is no specific number quantifier before the nouns referred to people,\"men\"can not be added.\"men\"is a unique affix in Chinese. The singular and plural in Chinese personal pronouns has a

clear classification.\"men\"is a essential condition for the existence of plural.While for vast majority of common nouns,\"men\"does not need to and can not be used to describe its plurality,only the quantifier modifiers can play the role.As for the nouns referred to people,of course,\"men\"can be used to show their plurality,but this morpheme is just the sufficient condition rather than the absolute condition for the existence of their plurality.Because this kind of nouns may not the singular ,even if \"men\"is not added,such as \"ren min\".As a result,just as what is mentioned before,\"men\"in Chinese is a derived postfix,which applies to personal pronouns and nouns referred to people.

Except\"men\in Chinese.

Here are some examples about what I mention above.

1:教师们回家了。

If we translate this sentence into English,maybe \"Teachers went home.\"is correct.From this sentence, we know there must be more than one teachers.And \"men\"is the plural mark in these sentence ,It is easy for us to understand .If it changes to \"教师回家了\regarded as singular or plural.The sentence itself is ambiguous.We may comprehend it according to the context.This is also one of the reasons why Chinese is so hard to understand.

It is obvious that \"men\"plays a crucial role in showing the plurality in Chinese

and can make us more clearly to understand sentence.

2:民众反应很强烈。

Although \"men \"does not appear in this sentence,according to its meaning,we can know that we should use \"people\"rather than \"person\" to translate this sentence.Because \"民众”is a plural in Chinese.\"people have strong reaction \"may be appropriate.

3.他混入人群中

Apparently,crowd is a plural,witch means a group of people.So this sentence can be said as\"He mingled into the crowd.\"

There are many the same examples. So the plural marks in Chinese can be seen often.

We can also use numbers to show the plurality in Chinese,Such as \"三个苹果\".Although the Chinese character \"ping guo \"does not change in form if we say \"一个苹果”，we all know that the number --three determines the plurality.The noun modified by the quantifiers is plural form in concept. In English, The phrase will be written as \"three apples\".The plurality is more obvious.So we can see,the number which is more than one represent the plural marks too.Besides,if we see the characters ,such as \"些\"\"\"多\"in Chinese sentence,we can know that the nouns modified by these characters are plural.for example,“ 许多小孩喜欢吃香蕉”we have

to notice that \"小孩\"here is not a singular,but a plural. So we should use children rather than child in English.And these characters can not be used with \"men\".for example ,we can say \"那些人\"and \"很多同学”but we can not say \"那些人们\"and \"很多同学们\".It is just common sense and a formed rule from our daily life.It will be weired if we speak in this way. Also,some adverbs indicating the scope and frequency such as \"老\总\都\经常\"and so on can be matched with some verbs to show the repetition of action and frequency of time.Even some conjunctions in Chinese can show the additive or accumulated quantity.In addition,a lot of idioms, phrases and sentence formats also can be used to represent plural concept.

All in all,There is plural marks in Chinese.The concept of singular and plural is reflected by semantic instead of grammatical form.