Gender is quite frequently lumped together with number as two frequent nominal categories. But this should not induce us to put them on the same level of analysis. Number, the plural number, for instance, is, in French, a morpheme: if instead of 'la montagne' /lamõtañ/, I say 'les montagnes' /lemõtañ/, I choose to say /…e…/ instead of /…a…/ because I want to stress that several montains are involved, not one. Nothing, in the context, compelled me to say 'les' instead of 'la'. The plural was a new choice.
- Martinet (1962), a pag.17