Pluralstem

Pluralstem is a term used in linguistic morphology to refer to the base form of a noun (or related word) that is involved in expressing plurality. It denotes the portion of the word from which plural inflection is built, either through attachment of affixes, through internal vowel or consonant changes, or through a combination of both. In languages with regular plural suffixes, the plural stem is often the same as the singular stem, with a plural morpheme added. In languages that employ stem alternation or irregular plural formation, the plural stem may differ from the singular stem and participate in a different set of phonological or morphophonological rules.

The concept of a plural stem helps describe how plural forms are generated across different noun classes or grammatical systems. Some languages use multiple plural stems depending on factors such as noun class, count, or semantic domain, while others maintain a single stem with various plural allomorphs. In nonconcatenative or ablaut-based systems, the plural stem may be realized through systematic changes to the stem rather than through a straightforward suffix addition.

In analysis, the plural stem is treated as an underlying representation in lexicon-based or generative frameworks. It can be encoded in computational models as the base form associated with number features, from which surface plural forms are derived via morphophonological rules or affixation patterns.

See also: stem, affix, allomorph, morphophonology, broken plurals, suppletion.