喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can picture plural as the mark a language puts on a word to say "not just one" — the -s on dogs, the change from man to men. Grammar is where the word lives most of the time: one form for a single thing, another form the moment there is more than one. Once you have that picture of "more than one, and it shows", the wider use follows easily — a plural society is one where many different kinds of people are present at the same time.

可以想成語言在一個字上打的記號，用來說「不只一個」：dog 加上 -s 變成 dogs，man 換形變成 men。它…更多收起可以想成語言在一個字上打的記號，用來說「不只一個」：dog 加上 -s 變成 dogs，man 換形變成 men。它大部分時間都住在文法裡——一個東西是一種形式，一旦超過一個，形式就跟著變。有了「不只一個，而且看得出來」這個畫面，比較大的用法就好接：a plural society 就是同一個社會裡同時擺著很多種不同的人，而且那份不同是看得見的。

原始詞典資料7 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

pluraladj/ˈplʊəɹəl/

  • 1

    Consisting of or containing more than one of something.

    • The notion of culture is one whose meanings are plural and shifting.
    • Than plural faith which is too much by one: Thou counterfeit to thy true friend!
  • 2

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsIn systems of number, not singular or not singular or dual.

    • English nouns usually have singular and plural forms.
  • 3

    Pluralistic.

    • Although the nation was far more plural than Canada in the number of its Christian groups
    • The Hong Kong and Singapore markets are way more "plural" than most Western economies, but they have not led to pluralistic politics.
  • 4

    Having some form of multiplicity, especially dissociative identity disorder.

pluralnoun/ˈplʊəɹəl/

  • 1

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsThe plural number. In English, referring to more or less than one of something.

    • "There are three numbers; the singular, the dual, and the plural. [...] The dual is sometimes used to denote two objects, but even here the plural is more common."
  • 2

    grammarhuman-scienceslinguisticsA word in the form in which it potentially refers to something other than one person or thing; and other than two things if the language has a dual form.

    • The plural of 'cat' is 'cats', but the plural of 'child' is 'children'.
    • Malay is the lingua franca of several Southeast Asia countries and has been simplified by its use as a second language by non-native speakers. For example, the Malay plural is formed by repeating a word twice – buku means book and buku-buku means books.
  • 3

    A person with some form of multiplicity, particularly dissociative identity disorder.

    • Singlet and monocultural identity is so normalized that many voice hearers and plurals don’t share their experiences with anyone, living in isolation (and sometimes in poverty) and spending considerable inner resources to manage postures and performances of ‘mental health’.
    • More strongly, respect might require that singlets themselves accept, in the context of interacting with plurals, that people are truly distinct people.

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。