The aspects of grammar which reflect singular versus plural but also others more exotic like dual and paucal.
2
votes
3answers
120 views
What kind of pluralisation system does Welsh use?
Many nouns in Welsh have a the plural form that is shorter than the singular form (i.e. the singular form looks like the plural form + affix).
For example:
Singular
coeden 'tree'
seren 'star'
...
8
votes
1answer
144 views
Proper terminology for the types of dual
I was reading an article about typology of Russian language by Gasparov, B. M. (“Structure of Russian language from typological point of view (Intro to sociogrammatics). Article 2. Morphology of the ...
8
votes
3answers
201 views
Do any languages have verbal inflection with a plural object?
The verb in a language like English can inflect for person, for example:
I see the cat > he sees the cat
and the verb can inflect for tense:
I see the cat > I saw the cat
But do any languages ...
2
votes
1answer
70 views
“Enumerators” and Approximate Inversion
There's a term that, as far as I know, goes back to traditional Celtic grammar called "enumerators". These are essentially words that inflect for number in weird ways when preceded by a numeral, that ...
7
votes
3answers
471 views
Is there a difference between plurality in semantics and in morphology?
With regard to morphology a common example of a lexeme is [dog, dogs] where dogs is the plural inflexion of the lemma dog modified by the -s suffix, marking plurality.
Although I can accept that dog ...
13
votes
1answer
245 views
Are there languages in which plural classifiers co-occur with numerals?
I'm aware that a number of classifer languages have what might be called "plural classifiers" which -- unlike "normal" classifier -- force a plural, count interpretation, instead of being ambiguous ...
15
votes
2answers
324 views
Are there any languages that mark nouns as mass?
Nouns like water, mud, furniture in English are odd with plural morphology (adding -s, as in furnitures), with numerals (three furniture(s)), and seem to have their own quantifier (much water but not ...
9
votes
5answers
363 views
“Overabundant nouns” in Italian: do they exist in other languages?
Under my answer to that question, I talked about a category of nouns that exist in Italian. The italian name is "Nomi sovrabbondanti" or "sostantivi sovrabbondanti", the meaning is roughly ...
7
votes
2answers
146 views
The paucal to denote between three to six individuals
According to the paper cited in this answer, in a "usual case" the paucal denotes between three to six individuals.
How common is the limit "three to six"? Is there any reason that those languages ...
15
votes
2answers
246 views
Paucal number without singular
I have usually seen the paucal number presented as intermediate between singular and plural in the languages that have it:
singular - just one
paucal - a few
plural - many
However, is there any ...
