Countable, uncountable and collective nouns in the early eighteenth century English -- an overview. (Linguistics).

1. Introduction

The inflectional pattern of nouns in Early and Late Modern English is almost identical with today's. One interesting exception is the treatment of abstract and mass nouns which in Present-Day English have no plural form and are considered indivisible. In Early Modern English they were regularly used in the plural (Schlauch 1959: 95) and in the course of Late Modern English they seem to have been systematically reclassified (Denison 1998: 96). The paper provides a synchronic analysis of selected countable, uncountable and collective nouns in the early eighteenth century English. The study is based on a corpus comprising five language registers: newspaper articles, letters, plays, novels and military documents. It outlines the overall tendencies in the treatment of certain nouns as countable, uncountable and collective in the corpus, as well as points out the discrepancies in their usage in different language registers. The study forms a part of my research into the development of countable and uncountable noun s in New English.

1.1 The corpus

The corpus consists of texts which both resemble and complement one another in terms of their range of vocabulary. The military documents differ from the rest in the choice of lexis, which makes them difficult to compare with the other texts, however, they also contribute to the completeness of the language picture, by indicating possible register-based differences.

The corpus materials are:

-- Moll Flanders (1722) by Daniel Defoe,

-- Love for Love (1695) and The Way of the World (1700) by William Congreve,

-- The Spectator (1711-1712, vol. I and II),

-- The Guardian (1713, vol. I and II,

-- battle accounts (1690-1712),

-- letters published in The Guardian (vol. I and II),

-- letters published in The Spectator (vol. I-IV).

2. Classification of nouns -- the criteria

2.1 Countable versus uncountable nouns

The category of countable nouns comprises all the nouns which show plural marking (both regular, such as book-books, and irregular child-children) as well as a group of unmarked plurals (sheep, deer) which nevertheless behave syntactically like the former. Uncountable nouns semantically refer to an undifferenciated mass, they have no number marking and always take singular verbs. Singular countable nouns require a determiner to form a grammatical NP, whereas uncountable nouns do not (Denison 1998: 96), e.g.:

countable: *Book is cheap.

uncountable: Bread is cheap.

Countable unmarked plurals behave similarly in this respect, e.g.:

countable: A sheep is grazing in the field.

uncountable: *A furniture is expensive.

The use of articles with nouns seems to be an applicable criterion in the analysis of their countability in the eighteenth century, as the usage did not differ remarkably from that of Present-Day English. One difference is, according to Rissanen (1999: 191), that abstract nouns were used without an article more often than today, particularly when the marking of (in)definiteness or reference was of little importance. Rissanen quotes an example from the Helsinki Corpus:

'Nay sweete Hodge say truth, and do not me begile.'

([HC] Gammer Gurton V.ii)

Uncountable and countable nouns also differ in the choice of indicators of quantity, much and many. Much is used with the singular of mass nouns (much sugar), whereas many is used with the plural of countable nouns (many dogs). This modem distributional pattern was already well established in the eighteenth century (Marckwardt 1970: 52). Strang (1974: 139) maintains that the eighteenth century is a period when a great deal of started to be used exclusively with mass nouns. Other indicators of quantity used with uncountable nouns are the amount of and little, in the cases where countable nouns take the number of, several, few.

The category of uncountable nouns corresponds largely with the category of singularia tantum as employed by Graband (1965). He includes in this group all the nouns, which have no plural form. Graband divides such nouns into konkreta which include such nouns as money, honey, milk, garlic, mint, sugar, wheat, rye, etc., and abstrakta consisting of youth, music, beauty, etc. The only point of discord between the two classifications is the treatment of news, which, according to Graband, belongs to the group called pluralia tantum on the grounds of the '-s' ending. News behaves syntactically like abstrakta and is semantically close to it, therefore it is discussed alongside this category in the present study. Some nouns may be used in either mass or countable sense, for example:

countable: Have one of these cakes.

uncountable: Have a piece of my birthday cake.

In this case the distinction is to some extent based on semantic grounds: a big cake which can be divided into portions functions as a mass noun, whereas a small cake -- an indivisible unit -- functions as a countable noun. English has for a long time displayed the tendency to allow mass nouns to be used as countables, meaning 'a portion of', 'a variety of' or 'an instance of' (Denison 1998: 98). Such a situation often occurs as regards nouns referring to food or other commodity, such as 'a variety of' or 'a portion of':

'What breads/coffees/flours/milks can you get in the local supermarket?'

'I'll have two teas, please.'

In Present-Day English abstract nouns can be used with an indefinite article when a particular event or state is in focus. Rissanen (1999: 192) claims that this kind of usage was also acceptable in New English. One of his examples from Helsinki Corpus is:

'I would never have any one eat but what he likes and when he has an appetite'

([HC] Locke 46)

2.2 Collective nouns

Collective nouns (also called group nouns) describe a set or group of people, animals or things, for example a flock (of sheep), a team (of players). Collective nouns can be both singular and plural. The difference *between collective nouns and other countable nouns is that after a singular group noun (especially in British English) there is often a choice between a singular and plural verb, for example:

'The crowd was/were delighted by the actor's performance.'

(Leech 1989: 167-8)

Other nouns of this kind in Present-Day English include army, audience, government, committee, etc.

3. Countable, uncountable and collective nouns in New English

Most language historians tend to omit the aspect of countability or treat it marginally in their works on morphological and syntactic behaviour of nouns in New English. Schlauch (1959: 95) states that abstract and mass nouns which in Present-Day English have no plural form and are considered indivisible, were used regularly in the plural in Early New English, for example in Shakespeare. Some of the examples she gives are:

'We'll make our leisures to attend on yours' (Merchant of Venice, I i)

'your better wisdoms' (Hamlet, I ii)

Denison (1998: 96), who studied the usage of countable and uncountable nouns in the nineteenth century, claims that some nouns seem to have been subject to a systematic process of change from uncountable to countable in the period. The example he analyses is acquaintance, whose countable variant gained popularity in the course of the nineteenth century. Denison admits, however, that full evidence for this change is not available. I am not aware of the existence of any comprehensive study of countable and uncountable nouns in the eighteenth century.

Collective nouns have received far more attention from language historians. Wright (1924), Ekwall (1975) and Welna (1998) devote large sections of their works to unmarked plurals and group nouns in New English. The only historically true unmarked plurals in the period are deer, sheep and swine, however, other nouns used collectively are often treated as plurals. Ekwall (1975: 91) claims that unchanged plural gained ground considerably throughout the period. Names of animals such as fish, fowl, salmon were often unchanged in the plural. Names of weapons and projectiles, like cannon or cartridge, were also treated collectively, and so were names of materials (brick, pearl) and measure, weight, time and price expressions.

4. Countable, uncountable, collective: the overall tendencies in the corpus

4.1 Countable nouns in the corpus

The majority of countable nouns can be easily distinguished in the texts: they are common nouns, which have both singular and plural forms. In the singular they require a determiner to form an NP, and in the plural they used with numerals or indicators of quantity, such as many, several, few, a number of. Such nouns in the corpus include man-men, hour-hours, day-days, thing-things, ditch-ditches, child-children, father-fathers, addition-additions, and many others. The examples are:

(1) '... that he wondered to see so many men of Sense so very serious upon Fooleries.' (The Spectator; vol. I, 126 Addison)

(2) 'I found ... several other things of value.' (Moll Flanders 226)

(3) '... he could not bring his own field-pieces to bear against them on account of many ditches and other impediments...' (The Battle of Blenheim 5)

(4) 'There are Fathers that have many Children, and there are Children that have Many Fathers...' (Love for Love 296)

(5) 'A very sumptuous Table, agreeable Company, and kind Reception were but so many importunate Additions to the Torment I was in.' (The Spectator, vol. I, 179 an anonymous letter)

However, some abstract nouns, treated in Present-Day English as uncountable, are used as countables in my corpus. These include applause and understanding (knowledge). The corpus examples are:

(6) '... a British audience may vie with the Roman theatre in a virtue of their applauses.' (The Guardian, vol. I, 253)

(7) '... to polish our Understandings and neglect our Manners is of all things the most inexcusable.' (The Spectator; vol. I, 25)

4.2 Uncountable nouns -- konkreta

Uncountable konkreta include names of liquids, substances, materials, and other concrete objects. Some examples from the corpus are gold, lace, baggage, timber; money, and furniture. They are invariably treated as uncountable in the corpus.

4.2.1 The names of substances, materials include:

(8) '... the sort of people ... are seldom troubled with much gold in their pockets, as I see you are.' (Moll Flanders 298)

(9) '... they made a barricade with waggons and with pieces of timber laid across to cover their retreat ...' (The Battle of Blenheim 5)

4.2.2 Concrete things referring to an undifferentiated mass comprise:

Baggage

(10) '... Indians were laden with the baggage of the Spaniards ...' (The Guardian, vol. I 31-32)

(11) 'All the baggage was sent back to Riedlingen ...' (The Battle of Blenheim 3)

Money

(12) 'He's reckoning his Money -- my Money it was.' (The Way of the World 323)

Furniture

(13) 'My governess ... came down herself to the ship, bringing me, in the first place, a sea-bed, as they call it, and all its furniture...' (Moll Flanders 339)

(14) 'The Lady seemed to set an unspeakable Value upon these several Pieces of Furniture.' (The Spectator, vol. I, 13)

4.3 Abstrakta

This group comprises names of abstract ideas, represented in the corpus by: courage, time, glory, justice, zeal, mercy, capacity and many others. News will be considered here as well though it does not belong to Graband's category of abstrakta (cf. 2.1)

Courage

(15) '... The Elector of Bavaria was seen riding up and down, and inspiring his men also with fresh courage'. (The Battle of Blenheim 8)

Time

(16) '... I had so much time given me for reflection upon what was past ...' (Moll Flanders 305)

(17) '... such Tricks in Writing as required much Time and little Capacity.' (The Spectator, vol. I, 223 Addison)

Mercy

(18) '... I doubt you will find but little mercy' (Moll Flanders 310)

Justice

(19) ' ... he told his story with a great deal of justice and moderation...' (Moll Flanders 296)

News

(20) '... my country customers ... will, perhaps, look upon it as a strange piece of news.' (The Guardian 304)

(21) 'Well, I'll tell you News ...' (Love for Love 214)

(22) 'Merciful, no News of Foible yet?' (The Way of the World 347)

4.4 Uncountables treated as countables.

Some uncountable nouns in the corpus are treated as countable with the meaning 'a variety of' or 'a kind of', 'an instance of', for example:

Wine

Whenever wine refers to the type of drink in general, it is treated as a uncountable noun, when a particular kind of wine is discussed, then it is countable.

uncountable:

(23) '... a Fellow who has been laying out his Money, ever since he was born, for the meer Pleasure of Wine, has bethought himself of joining Profit and Pleasure together.' (The Spectator, vol. IV, 53 a letter signed Roger de Coverley)

countable:

(24) '... no Steward's Table can be without it, that it strengthens Digestion, excludes Surfeits, Fevers, and Physick, which Green Wines of any kind can't do.' (The Spectator, vol. IV, 53 letter signed Roger de Coverley)

Beauty

Beauty is used in the abstract sense as a uncountable noun:

(25) '... if a young woman have beauty, birth, breeding, wit ...' (Moll Flanders 21)

Its countable variant is employed when it means a beautiful woman or thing:

(26) '... Beauties who have Charms enough to do and say what would be disobliging in any others but themselves.' (The Spectator, vol. II, 24 Steele)

(27) '... the whole Dress has a thousand Beauties in it, which I would not have as yet made too publick.' (The Spectator, vol. IV, 98 a letter signed Teraminta)

Youth

Youth is used as an uncountable noun to mean the time in a person's life:

(28) 'When Life itself is a Feaver, as it is licentious Youth ...' (The Spectator, vol. II, 258 Steele)

However, when it refers to a young person, or a particular group of young people, it is treated as countable:

(29) '... she has all the Devotion paid to her by a Crowd of Youths who are unacquainted with the Sex ...' (The Spectator, vol. IV, 68 an anonymous letter)

Hair

Hair is uncountable when it refers to all the hair on a person's head:

(30) 'They let the Hair of their Heads grow to a great Length ...' (The Spectator, vol. I, 187 Addison)

and countable when it refers to individual hairs:

(31) '... the good man that had one Wife who took a Dislike to his grey Hairs, and another to his black, till by their picking out of what each of them had an Aversion to, they left his Head altogether bald and naked.' (The Spectator vol. I, 126 Addison)

Imagination

The uncountable variant is preferred when imagination is used in a general, abstract sense, whereas the countable one dominates in expressions referring to the imagination of particular people. Such distinction is observed in all the texts where the noun is to be found.

(32) 'Imagination and reason should go hand in hand.' (The Guardian, vol. I, 167)

(33) 'Why Faith, I have a good lively Imagination ...' (Love for Love 261)

4.5 Collective nouns

Collective nouns seem to be typical for military language in my corpus, as most of the examples of this kind come from battle accounts or references to battles in newspapers and letters, both in literal and metaphorical sense. The non-military group nouns include audience, mankind, public, youth and world (with reference to people). The corpus examples are:

(34) '... a British audience may vie with the Roman theatre in a virtue of their applauses.' (The Guardian, vol. I, 253)

(35) 'This inclination of the Audience to sing along with the Actors, so prevails with them...' (The Spectator, vol. I, p. 115)

(36) '... mankind are no less in proportion, accountable for the ill use of their dominion over creatures of the lower rank of beings...' (The Guardian, vol. I, 260, an anonymous letter)

(37) 'For the publick always reap greater advantage from the example of successful merit...' (The Guardian, vol. I, IV)

(38) 'He has made the world merry, and I hope they will make him easy so long as he stays among us.' (The Guardian, vol. I, 291)

(39) '...Funeral of those Athenian young Men who perished in the Samian Expedition ... That the Loss which the Commonwealth suffered by the Destruction of his Youth ...' (The Spectator vol. IV, 218 an anonymous letter)

4.5.1 Collective nouns in military documents

Horse

Horse is used collectively in the majority of cases in my military documents (15 occurrences in this sense out of a total of 2l) and once in the letters published in The Spectator. Horse is used collectively when

(a) it refers to the whole military unit:

(40) 'The horse and dragoons were obliged to charge four or five times.' (The Battle of Blenheim, Marlborough 1)

(41) 'Our general the next Day sent a Party of Horse to reconnoitre them from a little Hauteur...' (The Spectator vol. II, 305 an anonymous letter)

or

(b) to soldiers on horses:

(42) 'About forty horse came down from the town, which was all...' (Storming the Gibraltar 1)

Horse is used as a regular plural when it refers to individual animals or a certain group of animals, not the whole cavalry:

(43) '... they all ran away killing nothing but one of our dragoon's horses.' (The Battle of the Boyne 1)

(44) 'They battered to such a degree that a coach and horses might have gone through in several places.' (Schellenberg 1)

Enemy

Enemy is used collectively throughout the military documents (81 occurrences), it also appears in this sense in The Spectator (10 such occurrences out of 43). It is used with verbs in the plural or as an antecedent of the personal adjective their or them. There is one instance in the corpus where the personal adjective referring to the enemy is his:

(45) '... our whole attention was fixed on the enemy and his movements...' (Schellenberg 1)

(46) 'About eleven at night an express arrived from his Highness that the enemy were marching directly towards him.' (The Battle of Blenheim 1)

(47) 'At last the enemy ... were obliged to relax their hold.' (Schellenberg 1)

Enemy is used collectively also in The Spectator (10 such cases out of 43).

literally:

(48) 'When the Romans were pressed with a foreign Enemy, the Ladies voluntarily contributed all their Rings and Jewels to assist the Government...' (The Spectator vol. II, 6 Addison)

or in 'military metaphors':

(49) 'Whether or not the Ladies retreated hither in order to rally their Forces I cannot tell; but the next Night they came in so great a Body to the Opera, that they outnumbered the Enemy.' (The Spectator vol. II, 5 Addison)

Cannon

It occurs 15 times in battle accounts and once in The Spectator, always as a collective noun in the singular:

(50) 'They likewise brought forward their cannon, and planted several batteries along the hill ...' (The Battle of Blenheim 4)

(51) '... The Duke of Malrborough ... caused a battery of cannon to be brought forward ...' (The Battle of Blenheim 7)

(52) '... at the first firing of our dragoons and three pieces of cannon that marched with us, they all ran away...' (The Battle of the Boyne 1)

Artillery

There are 4 occurrences of artillery in the documents, all used collectively.

(53) '... hid Grace immediately sent orders to Gen. Churchill to march as soon as it was light with the twenty battalions and the train of artillery ...' (The Battle of Blenheim 2)

Infantry

Infantry appears 20 times in the documents, always collectively.

(54) 'The battalion of English Guards and Rowe's brigade of infantry were commanded to file off to the left of all ...' (The Battle of Blenheim 2)

(55) 'I ... became aware of several lines of infantry in greyish white uniforms on our left flank.' (Schellenberg 2)

Foot

Foot is used collectively when it refers to a group of soldiers (infantry). There are 15 such occurrences in my military documents.

(56) '... the right wing, consisting of twenty-four squadrons of horse and dragoons and six regiments of foot.' (The Battle of the Boyne 1)

(57) 'His Grace ordered General Churchill to draw up the two lines of foot...' (The Battle of Blenheim 5)

Sword

Sword is used 3 times collectively in the battle accounts (4 being the total) meaning the kind of weapon in general:

(58) '... the English squadrons charged up to them sword in hand ...' (The Battle of Blenheim 6)

The regular plural form is also possible in a similar context, but here the attention is drawn not so much to the kind of weapon but the actual swords held by the soldiers:

(59) '... the rest, screwing their swords into their muskets, received the charge ...' (The Battle of the Boyne 1)

5. Nouns which display variation in their usage

There are some nouns in the corpus which cannot be classified in a clear-cut way, most likely because their usage was in the process of change. They include accommodation, acquaintance, advice, assistance, damage, entertainment, evidence, fish, fruit, information and mischief.

5.1 Accommodation

Accommodation is used in two senses in the corpus, (a) the settling of a disagreement (b) a place to live or work.

5.1.1 Accommodation meaning the settling of a disagreement is clearly countable wherever it occurs in the corpus. It is used with the indefinite article 'an' or with the plural marker '-s'. It is appears in this form in Moll Flanders (3x), The Spectator (1x), and a letter from one of the readers published in The Spectator (1x).

(60) '... he brought my attorney to this, that he promised he would not blow the coals, if I inclined to an accommodation, he would not hinder me, and that he would rather persuade me to peace than to war ...' (Moll Flanders 273)

(61) 'At last, in order to an Accommodation, they agreed upon this Preliminary; That each of them should immediately dismiss his Privy-Counsellor.' (The Spectator, vol. I, 207 Addison)

(62) 'I ... should be glad, if it might lie in my Power, to effect an amicable Accommodation betwixt two faces of such different Extremes, as the only possible Expedient, to mend the Breed, and rectifie the Physiognomy of the Family on both Sides.' (The Spectator, vol. I, 194 a letter signed Hugh Goblin)

5.1.2 Accommodation meaning a place to live or work shows variation in usage. It is used as a uncountable as well as countable noun, the ratio being 5:6 in the corpus as a whole. The usage of accommodation in The Spectator illustrates this balance well, as it contains 1 occurrence of accommodation as a countable noun and 1 as a uncountable noun. Moll Flanders has 4 uncountable examples out of the total 7. In The Guardian, accommodation is always countable (2 occurrences). In the other texts accommodation is not used. My figures may imply that there was a choice between the countable and uncountable version in the period under discussion. The preference for the countable treatment of accommodation in The Guardian may be idiosyncratic to the editor of the newspaper, who seems to be the author of all the texts (Nestor Ironside, Esq.). The tendencies in the usage of accommodation may be illustrated by the table:

Table 1

Accommodation

Source                     Number of    Countable  Uncountable
                           occurrences

The Spectator 1711         2            1          1
The Guardian 1713          2            2          --
Moll Flanders 1722         7            3          4
Letters 1711-1713          --           --         --
Battle accounts 1690-1712  --           --         --
Plays 1695, 1700           --           --         --
Total                      11           6          5

5.1.2.1 The uncountable instances of accommodation in the corpus are as follows:

(63) '... I made no doubt but there would be very good inns and accommodation enough; ...' (Moll Flanders 158)

(64) 'Our Reckonings, Apartments, and Accommodation, fell under Ephraim ...' (The Spectator vol. II, 183)

5.1.2.2 The countable instances are:

(65) '... I did not doubt but her accommodations were good.' (Moll Flanders 180)

(66) 'The humour so prevailed among the virtuous of this reign, that they were actually making parties to go up to the moon together, and were more put to it in their thoughts how to meet with accommodations by the way, that how to get thither.' (The Guardian, vol. II, 150)

(67) '... the better the Host was, the worse generally were his Accommodations ...' (The Spectator, vol. II, 163)

5.2 Acquaintance

Acquaintance occurs in all the texts in the corpus except the military documents. It is used in the sense of (1) a person or people whom one knows, (2) knowledge obtained through personal experience.

5.2.1 Acquaintance designating a person or persons whom one knows displays a slight variation in its usage. The plural form acquaintances appears only once in the corpus, in Moll Flanders, whereas the singular form occurs 43 times, both with reference to one person (7x) and to a group of people (36x). The only plural occurrence is:

(68) '... though my new acquaintances knew nothing of me, yet I soon got a great deal of company about me ...' (Moll Flanders 69)

Moll Flanders is chronologically the latest of the texts under analysis (1722), which may suggest that the use of acquaintance with the plural marker portends the beginning of a new usage, although the occurrence of only one such form is not sufficient to allow any conclusive statements.

If we apply the modern criteria in the classification of all the singular occurrences of acquaintance, it seems most likely that it is used collectively or treated as an unmarked plural (analogously to the already discussed horse or enemy). When acquaintance refers to one person in the corpus, it takes an indefinite article, and when it refers to a group of people it is often preceded by such indicators of quantity as few or many, which excludes it from the category of uncountable nouns. All the occurrences of acquaintance in this sense in the corpus can be summarised as follows:

Table 2

Acquaintance

Source              Number of    Singular      Singular      Plural
                    occurrences  referring to  used
                                 1 person      collectively

The Spectator 1711      17            3             14         --
The Guardian 1713       10            1              9         --
Moll Flanders 1722      11            2              8          1
Letters 1711-1713       --           --             --         --
Plays 1695, 1700         6            1              5         --
Battle accounts         --           --             --         --
1690-1712
Total                   44            7             36          1

5.2.1.1 The occurrences of acquaintance referring to one person are:

(69) 'She gave me the like cue to the next house, naming another name that was also an acquaintance of the gentlewoman of the house.' (Moll Flanders 224)

(70) 'I am Truth and hate an Old Acquaintance with a new Face.' (Love for Love 279)

(71) 'He ... pretends to be an intimate acquaintance of Tim Tuck.' (The Guardian vol. II, 102)

(72) '... he was met very luckily by an Acquaintance, who had the same Curiosity.' (The Spectator vol. I, 21 Addison)

5.2.1.2 Acquaintance referring to a group of people is used in the following way:

(73) 'He is with all his acquaintance.' (The Guardian 54)

(74) '.... the next day being with some of his inns-of-court acquaintance, resolved ... to entertain them.' (The Guardian vol. I, 173)

(75) 'All her Acquaintance congratulate her upon her Chance -- Medley, and laugh at that premeditating Murderer her Sister.' (The Spectator vol. I, 122 Steele)

(76) 'He generally found himself neglected by his new Acquaintance, as soon as they had Hopes of growing great ...' (The Spectator, vol. I, 288 Steele)

(77) '.. the woman ... lived always in town, having a good store of acquaintance ...' (Moll Flanders 329)

(78) 'I was entirely without friends, nay, even so much as without acquaintance ...' (Moll Flanders 115)

(79) '... I can show you your own Picture, and most of your Acquaintance to the Life, and as like as at Kneller's.' (Love for Love 215)

(80) '... To wear what I please, ... to have no obligation upon me to converse with Wits that I don't like, because they are your acquaintance ...' (The Way of the World 357)

5.2.2 Acquaintance used in the sense of knowledge of the world or skill occurs 2 times in the corpus, one example comes from Moll Flanders and the other one from The Guardian. It is uncountable in this context:

(81) 'He had too much spirit to hold his tongue in company; but at the same time so little acquaintance with the world that he did not know how to talk like other people.' (The Guardian vol. I, 95)

(82) '... I had now got into a little vein of work, and as I was not at a loss to handle my needle, it was very probable, as acquaintance came in, I might have got my bread honestly enough.' (Moll Flanders 221)

Acquaintance in the sense of familiarity (friendship) with people appears in all the texts (barring the military documents in which the word is not to be found at all). It is used 7 times as a countable and 9 times as a uncountable noun. The context does not seem to play a significant role in determining if the noun should be treated as countable or uncountable, which suggests that there might have been a relatively free choice between the two variants. The countable examples are mostly in the singular. The only plural cases (2x) are from Moll Flanders, which, when added to the use of acquaintance with the plural marker discussed above (section 4.2.1) might support the argument for the beginning of a new tendency in its usage.

Table 3

Acquaintance ('familiarity, friendship with people')

Source              Number of    Countable  Countable  uncountable
                    occurrences  singular   plural

The Spectator 1711       1          --         --           1
The Guardian 1713        3           2         --           1
Moll Flanders 1722       8           2          2           3
Letters 1711-1713        4           1         --           3
Plays 1695, 1700         1          --         --           1
Battle accounts         --          --         --          --
1690-1712
Sample total            16           5          2           9

Countable occurrences:

plural:

(83) '... I found it was absolutely necessary not to revive former acquaintances ...' (Moll Flanders 115)

(84) '... all the particular acquaintances a woman can expect to make ...' (Moll Flanders 116) singular:

(85) 'I had made an acquaintance with a very sober, good sort of woman ...' (Moll Flanders 71)

(86) 'I contracted an acquaintance with a woman in whose house I lodged ...' (Moll Flanders 116)

(87) 'She made an acquaintance with him ...' (The Guardian vol. I, 194)

(88) '... he naturally falls into an acquaintance with those of his own city or country who chance to be in the same place.' (The Guardian vol. II, 163)

(89) 'She ... received the Addresses of a Gentleman, whom, after a long and intimate Acquaintance she forsook ...' (The Spectator vol. I, 58 Addison)

(90) 'I can't have met with a great number of 'em, nor indeed it is a desirable Acquaintance ...' (The Spectator; vol. III, 281 a letter signed Constantia Feild)

Uncountable occurrences:

(91) 'Here I ... contracted some unhappy acquaintance...' (Moll Flanders 115)

(92) '... I had no particular acquaintance with any midwife ...' (Moll Flanders 176)

(93) '... where I not only had no manner of business, but not so much as the least acquaintance with any person in the town or near it.' (Moll Flanders 195)

(94) '... others ... by degrees took occasion to break off all acquaintance.' (The Guardian vol. I, 114)

(95) '... people take Advantage of one another by this means, and break off Acquiantance ...' (The Spectator, vol. III, 152 a letter from Mary Meanwell)

(96) 'I ... have contracted more acquaintance than it is suitable to my age.' (The Guardian vol. I, 243-4, a letter signed T.L.)

(97) 'But I hope, after a time, I shall break my mind -- that is, upon further ac-quaintance [with a woman].' (The Way of the World 371)

5.2.3 Acquaintance occurs also in such expressions as "the lady of my acquaintance" where it used as a fixed phrase and occurs with personal adjectives (my, your, his, her, our, their) which makes it irrelevant from the point of view of my classification.

5.3 Advice

Advice is used both as a countable (8x) and uncountable (15x) noun in the corpus. The overall tendency seems to be in favour of the uncountable variant, which is to be found in all the texts except the military documents. There are no countable examples in Moll Flanders and in the plays, there is only one in The Guardian, two in The Spectator and two in the military documents. The greatest number is used in the letters and even here the ratio of countable to uncountable forms is 3:5. There are 15 cases in the corpus of advice used with personal adjectives ('my/your, etc. advice'), which are impossible to be analysed in terms of their countability, therefore they have to be disregarded in this study.

Table 4

Advice

Source              Number of    Countable  uncountable
                    occurrences

The Spectator 1711       6           2           4
The Guardian 1713        2           1           1
Moll Flanders 1722       4          --           4
Letters 1711-1713        8           3           5
Plays 1695, 1700         1          --           1
Battle accounts          2           2          --
1690-1712

Total                   23           8          15

5.3.1 The instances of advice used as a countable noun are:

(98) 'They are most of them histories, or advices of publick transactions ...' (The Guardian vol. I, 4)

(99) '... I am glad to hear by my last Advices from Oxford, that there are a Set of Sighers in that University, who have erected themselves into a Society in Honour of that tender Passion.' (The Spectator vol. I, 110 Steele)

(100) 'Brunetta could not endure these repeated Advices ...' (The Spectator vol. I, 304)

(101) '... tho' our freshest Advices from London make no mention of any such Fashion ...' (The Spectator, vol. III, 28 vol. a letter signed Jack Modish)

(102) '... I would willingly give you a little good Advice ...' (The Spectator, vol. IV, 11 a letter signed Lydia)

(103) '... the Duke ... being in hourly expectation of receiving further advices from Prince Eugene of the motions of the enemy.' (The Battle of Bleinheim 1)

5.3.2 The uncountable cases of advice are as follows:

(104) '... it is a piece of advice that has a great many mortifications in it to me ...' (Moll Flanders 40)

(105) '... inclination to give good advice.' (The Guardian vol. II, 67)

(106) '... if she has stolen the Colour of her Ribbands from another, or had Advice about her Trimmings, I shall not allow her the Praise of Dress ...' (The Spectator, vol. I, 18 Steele)

(107) '... let these People know, that to give any Body Advice, is to say to that person I am your Betters.' (The Spectator, vol. III, 127 a letter signed Susan Civil)

(108) '..our Brother Tremble having lattely given thee wholsom advice concerning tuckers ...' (The Guardian vol. II, 193, vol. II a letter signed Ruth Prim)

(109) '... tis so dull to act always by Advice, and so tedious to be told of one's faults...' (The Way of the World 344)

5.4 Assistance

Assistance occurs in two sources: The Spectator and Moll Flanders (21x). In 2 cases it is clearly countable and in 1 case clearly uncountable, in the remaining 18 cases it is used with personal adjectives in constructions such as 'your/his assistance', which makes them irrelevant for this study. The countable examples come solely from The Spectator. The two occurrences of the countable variant may signal the existence of two competing forms in usage, or simply the individual preference of the writer as both cases come from the article of Addison.

countable:

(110) 'There may be a proper Season for these several Terrors; and when they only come in as Aids and Assistances to the Poet, they are not only to be excused but to be applauded.' (The Spectator vol. I, 161 Addison)

(111) '... our Climate of it self, and without the Assistances of Art., can make no further Advances towards a Plumb than to a Sloe ...'

(The Spectator, vol. I, 262 Addison)

uncountable:

(112) '... to qualify him to apply proper advice and assistance to me ...'

(Moll Flanders 316)

5.5 Damage

Damage is used 11 times in the corpus in the form which makes it possible to c1assify as countable or uncountable. In 5 cases it is clearly uncountable, in 1 clearly countable and in 5 cases it is used with the plural marker but behaves rather as a uncountable noun syntactically. It is used in this way in the context of law as the money ordered by the court to be paid for causing damage, as such it takes much as an indicator of quantity. The countable examples come exclusively from The Guardian, which may illustrate the individual preference of the editor or indicate a more general trend.

Table 5

Damage

Source               Number of          Uncountable         Countable
                    occurrences  damage         damges
                                                (money)

The Spectator 1711       2         --              2         --
The Guardian 1713        2         --              1          1
Moll Flanders 1722       2         --              2         --
Letters 1711-1713        1         1              --         --
Plays 1695, 1700         2         2              --         --
Battle accounts          2         2              --         --
1690-1712

Total                   11         5               5          1

5.5.1 Damages -- money ordered by court to be paid for causing damage:

(113) '... no court would give much damages, for the reputation of a person of such a character.'

(Moll Flanders 272)

(114) '... he did not question but that a jury would give very considerable damages on such an occasion ...'

(Moll Flanders 273)

(115) '... that might be pleaded in abatement of what damages a jury might be inclined to give.' (The Spectator vol. I, 247)

(116) 'His head is full of Costs, Damages, and Ejectments.' (The Spectator vol. I, 147 Addison)

5.5.2 The countable occurrence of damage:

(117) ' ... it often happens that the choleric inflict disproportional punishments ... seek proper and adequate reparation for the damages that they have sustained.' (The Guardian, vol. II, 174)

(118) '... the British nation received more damage in their trade from the port of Dunkirk than from almost all the parts of France.'

5.5.3 The uncountable examples are:

(119) '... when the pieces of steel fall they do great damage.' (The Defense of Gibraltar 2)

(120) 'O Madam, if you knew but what he promis'd me, and how he assur'd me your Ladyship shou'd come to no damage!' (The Way of the World 389)

5.6 Entertainment

Entertainment occurs 25 times as a countable noun in the corpus, mostly with the plural marker, and only 3 times as an uncountable noun. It does not appear in Moll Flanders, the plays or the military documents. The countablevariant was clearly favoured by all the writers of the newspaper articles and the letters.

Table 6

Entertainment

Source               Number of   Countable  Uncountable

                    occurrences
The Spectator 1711      13          12           1
The Guardian 1713        8           8          --
Moll Flanders 1722      --          --          --
Letters 1711-1713        6           4           2
Plays 1695, 1700         1           1          --
Battle accounts         --          --          --
1690-1712

Total                   27          25           3

5.6.1 The uncountable instances are:

(121) 'As Fortune was in his Power, he gave himself constant Entertainment in managing the mere Followers of it with the Treatment they deserved.' (The Spectator vol. I, 289 Steele)

(122) '... it would be no unacceptable Piece of Entertainment to the Town...' (The Spectator vol. III, 199 an anonymous letter)

5.6.2 The countable examples include:

(123) 'I shall here communicate to the World a couple of Letters, which I believe will give the Reader as good an Entertainment as any that I am able to furnish him with.' (The Spectator vol. I, 31 Addison)

(124) 'In the mean time, I have related this Combat of the Lion, to shew what are at present the reigning Entertainments of the Politer Part of Great Britain.' (The Spectator vol. I, 52 Addison)

(125) 'The knight ... was in high humor at an entertainment with ladies ...' (The Guardian vol. I, 70)

(126) 'Hence I regard our publick schools and universities ... as places designed to teach mankind the most refined luxury ... give it a taste for those entertainments which afford the highest transport without the grossness of remorse that attend vulgar enjoyments.' (The Guardian vol. I, 269)

(128) '... I ... fear this Abuse of it may make my Parish ridiculous, who already look on the singing Psalms as an Entertainment ...' (The Spectator vol. III, 140 a letter signed R. S.)

(129) '... thy shall have it sent home to thy House and make an Entertainment for all the Philomaths and students ...' (Love for Love 225)

5.7 Evidence

Evidence is used 5 times as a countable in the corpus and 4 times as a uncountable noun. (The expressions which cannot be analysed in terms of their count-ability are left out). It occurs in Moll Flanders and The Guardian. The only uncountable instances come from Moll Flanders, which might result from the individual preference of the author (Daniel Defoe) or point to the emergence of a new trend in the usage, as it is the latest of all the texts in the corpus.

5.7.1 The countable instances of evidence are:

(130) '... and indeed this opinion is an evidence and clearness ...' (The Guardian vol. I, 40)

(131) '... my husband desired to see this Mrs. Flanders that knew him so well, and was to be an evidence against him ...' (Moll Flanders 325)

5.7.2 The uncountable cases of evidence:

(132) '... and they wanted evidence for some time to convict them.' (Moll Flanders 324)

(133) 'He told me that they had no evidence against him ...' (Moll Flanders 330)

5.8 Fish

Fish is too poorly evidenced in the corpus to allow any definite conclusions about its usage. It is used 6 times: 5x in The Spectator and lx in the plays (The Way of the World). 2 instances are countable, 3 collective, 1 (figurative) uncountable. Such proportion may imply the preference for the collective treatment of the noun. The countable occurrences are:

(134) 'He ... stood upon the Banks of it some time to look upon an Angler that had taken a great many Shapes of Fishes, which lay flouncing up and down by him.' (The Spectator vol. I, 210 Addison)

(135) '... Thou art both as drunk and mute as a Fish.' (The Way of the World 378)

The collective instances:

(136) '... think of them no farther, as Insects and several Kinds of Fish ...' (The Spectator vol. II, 138 Addison)

(137) '... the Fish betook themselves to the Streams ...' (The Spectator vol. 1, 240 Addison)

The uncountable (figurative) usage:

(138) '... his Son had sent him a Letter which was neither Fish, Flesh nor good red Herring.' (The Spectator vol. II, 306 Addison)

5.9 Fruit

Fruit is used 9 times as a regular countable noun with singular/plural distinction and 6 times collectively. It does not occur in Moll Flanders and the military documents. The other texts differ in the treatment of fruit. It is always collective in the plays, perhaps because it used figuratively there, which may have some impact on its syntactic behaviour, although The Spectator contains fruit with a plural marker in an analogous expression. The rules for the usage of fruit seem to have been lax or at the time, though the proportion 9:6 may suggest the dominance of countable variant.

Table 7

Fruit

Source                      Number of   Countable  Collective
                           occurrences

The Spectator 1711              6           4           2
The Guardian 1713               4           4          --
Moll Flanders 1722             --          --          --
Letters 1711-1713               3           1           2
Plays 1695, 1700                2          --           2
Battle accounts 1690-1712      --          --          --

Total                          15           9           6

5.9.1 Countable occurrences of fruit:

(139) '... presents his mistress with oisters instead of fruits and flowers.' (The Guardian vol. I, 114)

(140) '... she gave him a delicious Repast of Fruits, and led him to a Stream to slake his Thirst.' (The Spectator vol. I, 44 Steele)

(141) 'As the First Fruits of those Joys and Consolations which you may expect from the Life you are now engaged in.' (The Spectator vol. II, 302 a letter signed Francis)

5.9.2 Instances of fruit treated collectively:

(142) 'I treated her with a basket of Fruit last Summer...' (The Spectator vol. III, 183 anonymous letter)

(143) '... I'm none of those, none of your forc'd Trees, that pretend to Blossom in the Fall, and Bud when they should bring forth Fruit.' (Love for Love 286)

(144) '... when the Seamen are thrown upon any of the unknown Coasts of America, they never venture upon the Fruit of ant Tree ...' (The Spectator vol. II, 142 Addison)

(145) 'Plants and vegetables are cultivated into the production of fine Fruit than they would yield without that Care ...' (The Spectator vol. II, 273 Steele)

5.10 Information

Information is used as a uncountable noun 7 times in the corpus as compared with 4 instances of the countable variant. 3 of the four countable examples are from the letters, 1 from The Guardian. The Guardian and the letters each have 2 uncountable occurrences, The Spectator, Moll Flanders and the military documents each have 1. Information is not used in the plays. The uncountable form seems to have been favoured by most writers.

Table 9

Information

Source                      Number of   Countable  Uncountable
                           occurrences

The Spectator 1711              1          --           1
The Guardian 1713               3           1           2
Moll Flanders 1722              1          --           1
Letters 1711-1713               5           3           2
Plays 1695, 1700               --          --          --
Battle accounts 1690-1712       1          --           1

Total                          11           4           7

5.10.1 The countable occurrences are as follows:

(146) 'Those who have a mind to give the state any private intelligence of what passes in the city ... convey into it a paper of such private informations as any way regard the interest or safety of the commonwealth.' (The Guardian vol. I, 304)

(147) 'There were ... others who returned to us informations of people yet shorter than themselves.' (The Spectator vol. II, 37 a letter signed Bob Short)

5.10.2 The uncountable instances were used in the following way:

(148) '... I received particular information in what places any of note among the besiegers, or the besieged, received any wound ...' (The Guardian vol. I, 211)

(149) 'A little inquiry furnished me with information that Mrs. - , that is my mother was dead ....' (Moll Flanders 352)

(150) '... the design of this Paper is to give you Information of a certain irregular Assembly which I think falls very properly under your Observation ...' (The Spectator vol. I, 32 a letter signed T. B.)

(151) '... I have lately received Information of a Club which I can call neither ancient or modern.' (The Spectator vol. I, 273 Addison)

(152) '... his Grace ... sent Col. Cadogan to bring him exact information of the Prince's progress.' (The Battle of Blenheim 5)

5.11 Mischief

Mischief occurs 10 times as an uncountable noun and 2 times as countable in the corpus, which suggests a considerable dominance of the uncountable variant. The noun is not to be found in the letters and in The Guardian. The countable forms occur in Moll Flanders (1x) and The Spectator (1x), though not exclusively but as an alternative to the uncountable one.

Table 10

Mischief

Source                      Number of   Countable  Uncountable
                           occurrences

The Spectator 1711              6           1           5
The Guardian 1713              --          --          --
Moll Flanders 1722              2           1           1
Letters 1711-1713              --          --          --
Plays 1695, 1700                2          --           2
Battle accounts 1690-1712       2          --           2

Total                          12           2          10

5.11.1 Uncountable instances of mischief:

(153) '... had he been brought upon the Stage another time, he would certainly have done Mischief.' (The Spectator vol. I, 50 Addison)

(154) '... I went in daily dread that that some mischief would befall me ...' (Moll Flanders 215)

(155) '... we all retired into a trench behind us, where we lay safe while much mischief was done to other regiments ...' (The Battle of the Boyne 1)

(156) 'It is of evil portent, and bodes Mischief to the Master of a Family.' (Love for Love 219)

5.11.2 Mischief as a countable noun:

(157) '... they may learn from it to guard themselves against the mischiefs which attend an early knowledge of their own beauty.' (Moll Flanders 25)

(158) '... my Friend ... gave me a particular Account of the Mischiefs they do in the Country ...' (The Spectator vol. II, 175 Addison)

6. Conclusion

The majority of nouns in the corpus can be decidedly classified into countable, uncountable and collective. The countable nouns include proper nouns which show plural/singular distinction (man-men, thing-things), and few abstract nouns which are used similarly (applause, understanding). The uncountable category comprises nouns which show no plural marking and are used with verbs in the singular. They can be divided into konkreta -- furniture, baggage, wine, and abstrakta -- courage, time (Graband 1965: 88). Collective nouns refer to a group of people or things (audience, enemy, cannon, horse, youth), and similarly to unmarked plurals, are not inflected for number even when they are used with plural forms of verbs.

A considerable number of nouns, however, display variation in their usage. Some nouns appear as both countable or collective, for some of them the collective variant is predominant (acquaintance), for others the countable form is favoured (fish, fruit). Some nouns seem to have been used equally often as countable and uncountable, these include accommodation and evidence. Others were treated more often as countable (entertainment) or more frequently as uncountable than countable (advice, damage, information, and mischief).

There are no marked differences in the treatment of the nouns in the texts, the exception being Moll Flanders (1722), the latest source, which displays some innovations or sporadic idiosyncrasies in usage (plural occurrences of acquaintance, always uncountable advice). Occasional differences are also to be found in The Spectator which contains the only two countable occurrences of assistance. Whether these different forms are innovations, relics or merely idiosyncrasies of the author I shall try to examine in my further study. The military documents have a specific range of vocabulary, which distinguishes them from the rest of the corpus. Nevertheless, they provide a good illustration of the usage of collective nouns (cannon, cavalry, enemy) that cannot be found elsewhere, which makes the study more comprehensive.

PRIMARY SOURCES

Addison, Joseph -- Steele, Richard

1711 The Spectator. vols 1-4. London: J.J. Dent and Sons.

[1907]

Bishop, Matthew

1704 "The defense of Gibraltar", in: Bishop, Mathew. Life and adventures of Matthew Bishop.

Browning, O. (ed.)

1897 The journal of Sir George Rooke, Admiral of Fleet, 1700-1702. London: [no indication of publisher].

Colonie, Jean

1904 "Schellenberg", in: Jean Colonie, 182-192.

1904 Chronicles of an Old Campaigner, 1692-1717. London: [no indication of publisher].

Congreve, William 

1695 Love for love. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[1982]

1700 The way of the world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[1982]

Dafoe, Daniel

1722 The fortunes and misfortunes of the famous Moll Flanders. London: Hamish Hamilton.

[1947]

Davies, Rowland

1690 "The battle of the Boyne", Camden Society Reprints LXVIII 1856.

Groyne Mail, The

1695 Advices of the defeat of twelfe thousand FRENCH in Catalonia, who endeavoured to relieve Castle-Follit. London: [no indication of publisher].

Hare, Dr.

1704 "The battle of Blenheim", in: John Churchill Marlborough, 394- 409.

Ironside, Nestor

[1713] The Guardian. London: printed for Jacob and Richard Tonson [no indication of publication date].

Marlborough, John Churchill

1707 "The battle of Blenheim", The Complete History of Spain. London: [no indication of publisher].

1845 The letters and dispatches of John Churchill, First Duke of Marlborough, from 1702 to 1712. vol 1: 394-409.

Rooke, George

1702 "The battle of Vigo", in: O. Browning (ed.), 228- 234.

Whitaker, Edward

1704 "Storming of Gibraltar", in: Haddock Correspondence

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