TESTING THE LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE OF MODERN SPEAKERS OF THE BULGARIAN LANGUAGE REGARDING THE PLURAL AND NUMERAL FORMS (QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY)

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of the plural and the numeral form, more precisely with the extent to which modern speakers of Bulgarian handle these two forms correctly. It is divided into 2 parts – the first one gives definitions of the plural and the numeral form, as well as the exceptions to the rule, and the second one presents and analyses the results of a pre-prepared survey and draws conclusions. The prepared questionnaire covers 255 respondents (we decided on this number in order to be as objective as possible when analyzing the results) from different age groups, with different types of education, and with different reasons for completing the questionnaire. The questionnaire contains 15 questions – 11 that test knowledge regarding the numeric and plural forms (7 multiple choices and 4 free response), as well as some exceptions to the rules and 4 that refer to the age of the respondents, their education, and the reason for completing the survey. The report discusses all the results in detail and draws conclusions about the general level of knowledge of the plural and numeral forms among modern native speakers of Bulgarian, as well as conclusions for each age group separately, for people with different types of education – primary, secondary, university, etc. and for respondents with philological education and respondents without such education.