Different languages conjugate their nouns or verbs based on the number that they are referring to. For example, in languages such as English and French, there are two distinctions--singular and plural. Arabic contains three--one, two, and many. What types of conjugations based on the number of whatever is being spoken about are there, and what languages/language families are they associated with?
-
There's also the dual: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_%28grammatical_number%29– Danger FourpenceCommented Mar 28, 2013 at 19:15
-
However, I think your question may be a little too broad.– Danger FourpenceCommented Mar 28, 2013 at 19:16
-
You should certainly read some basic articles like Wikipedia:Grammatical number to get familiar with dual, trial, quadral, paucal, collective, and other linguistic phenomenons existing in different languages (and related noun/pronoun/adjective conjugations). As soon as you have questions on a specific phenomenon, please don't hesitate to ask it here. This very question is, unfortunately, too broad.– Be Brave Be Like UkraineCommented Mar 28, 2013 at 20:23
-
Okay, thanks. I'll try to figure out how to make it more narrow.– kuwalyCommented Mar 28, 2013 at 21:07
-
1You're not talking about conjugation, which is a term referring only to (varieties of) the inflected forms of verbs in synthetic languages. What you're talking about is simply Inflection, in particular the inflectional category of Number.– jlawlerCommented Mar 28, 2013 at 21:16
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
Number in language is a big subject, much too big for a single answer on a site like this. I recommend you find the book "Number" by G. G. Corbett, which I think gives a good overview. It is not exhaustive (I doubt any book on a scientific topic ever can be) but it is very clearly written and a fast read. Just skimming the table of contents is an eye opener.
It's been years since I read it, but IIRC it discusses things like trial and tertial number (for things that come in threes or fours) and whether these really exist, paucal (few, countable) as opposed to plural (many, uncountable) systems, some that also include duals (things that come in twos, not that uncommon a number actually), count versus mass, where number is expressed (on nouns? verbs? pronouns? adjectives? etc.), how it is expressed (clitic? affix? separate word? change of tone, stress?), what sort of reduced systems the author has found (reduced=missing number, e.g dual for people but not things, plural marked in the present tense but not any other tense) etc. etc. Number, like all things I've ever looked into when it comes to language, is big, complex, and beautiful.
