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Ideas of Helen Cartwright, by Text

[American, fl. 1995, Professor at Tufts University.]

1993 On Plural Reference and Set Theory
p.416 A 'singulariser' converts a plural like 'number of' to a syntactically neutral form
     Full Idea: Helen Cartwright calls 'a number of' a 'singulariser', an expression whose linguistic function is to convert to a syntactically neutral form an expression whose semantic value remains plural. It is a great convenience grammatically.
     From: report of Helen Cartwright (On Plural Reference and Set Theory [1993]) by Keith Hossack - Plurals and Complexes 2
     A reaction: Compare Hofweber's Idea 10004, suggesting it is a crucial psychological convenience for reasoning, as well as a 'grammatical' convenience.