Typology of number systems in languages of Western and Central Siberia

This paper investigates the linguistic expression of number in seven languages from Western and Central Siberia. In a first step the number system of each language is described in detail, and afterwards the most relevant convergences and divergences of the languages are dealt with. Three particularly interesting phenomena are discussed in more detail: First, it is shown that the concept of general number, denoting noun forms underspecified for number, is able to account for a range of related phenomena (unmarked noun forms after numerals, nouns denoting paired objects). Second, singulatives in Selkup, Ket and partly Eastern Khanty are analyzed, whereby it is argued that their similar morphosyntactic and grammaticalization patterns allow for analyzing them as a contact phenomenon. Third, two splits on the animacy hierarchy between the first and second person in Dolgan as well as Chulym Turkic are presented. Finally, the results are evaluated against a broader areal-typological background, whereby it is shown that the category of number does not support any larger areal groupings within Western and Central Siberia, but that the analyzed languages rather adhere to patterns of number marking present all over Northern Eurasia.

Definiteness in Laki: Its interaction with demonstratives and number

This article investigates definiteness and its interactions with demonstratives and number in Laki (Northwestern Iranian). By the examination of demonstratives and building upon previous proposals, I argue for two types of definite DPs in Laki, namely anaphoric and deictic. I show that the patterns of definite and number marking are sensitive to the type of the DP. In particular, I argue that double definiteness, resulting from an Agree relation between D and N, and head movement of Num to D both are obtained only in anaphoric definite DPs for feature-checking requirements. Overall, this study highlights the contributions of anaphoricity to the DP internal structure. The present proposal can account for similar phenomena in other Iranian languages (i.e., Sorani and Kermanshahi Kurdish). The divergence of Laki definiteness from similar attested patterns (i.e., Scandinavian double definiteness) contributes to our cross-linguistic understanding of definiteness and its interactions with other nominal elements.

DOUBLE-NUMBER MARKING MATTERS FOR BOTH L1 AND L2 PROCESSING OF NONLOCAL AGREEMENT SIMILARLY

The present study uses event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine nonlocal agreement processing between native (L1) English speakers and Chinese–English second language (L2) learners, whose L1 lacks number agreement. We manipulated number marking with determiners (the vs. that/these) to see how determiner-specification influences both native and nonnative processing downstream for verbal number agreement. Behavioral and ERP results suggest both groups detected nonlocal agreement violations, indexed by a P600 effect. Moreover, the manipulation of determiner-number specification revealed a facilitation effect across the board in both grammaticality judgment and ERP responses for both groups: increased judgment accuracy and a larger P600 effect amplitude for sentences containing violations with demonstratives rather than bare determiners. Contrary to some claims regarding the potential for nonnative processing, the present data suggest that L1 and L2 speakers show similar ERP responses when processing agreement, even when the L1 lacks the relevant distinction.

A Grammatical Description of Leteh Nominal Morphology

The paper describes Leteh nominal morphology within the framework of Basic Linguistic Theory (Dixon 2010; Dryer 2006). The nominal morphology is described in the context of two phenomena: number marking and noun classification. Leteh is a South-Guan language from the Niger-Congo family of languages. The morphology of Leteh is largely agglutinative. Güldemann and Fiedler (2019) argue that current analyses of gender systems are heavily influenced by those in Bantu languages and not cross-linguistically applicable. They propose an alternative analysis that includes the notions agreement class and nominal form class. In this paper I adopt the notion of nominal form class to classify nouns in Leteh. The nouns are grouped into four major classes based on the plural morphemes that they take. These classes are subdivided based on the singular forms with which they are paired. Key words: verbal prefixes, Kwa, tense/ aspect, negation, person, mood, motion Note: Changes were made to the title and abstract of this article after publication, on 9/20/2021.

A Typological Sketch of Kamsá, a Language Isolate of Colombia

Kamsá is a language isolate spoken in the Sibundoy Valley in the Putumayo department of southern Colombia. Its speech community lives on the eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains, between the linguistic areas of the Andes and the Amazon. This paper presents various grammatical features of Kamsá, including its phonology, nominal morphology (especially noun class and case marking), verbal morphology (especially person/number marking for core arguments and evidentiality), morphosyntactic alignment, and syntax (including discussion of causatives, comparatives, and subordinate clauses). In doing so, the paper places Kamsá within its typological and geographical context, between the Amazon and the Andes.

Semantic Approaches to Number

This chapter presents semantic frameworks that model the general capability of language to refer to atomic, as well as non-atomic entities. Two approaches are developed and discussed in detail throughout the chapter: a set-theoretic approach and an approach in which entities are modelled as atomic and plural individuals. After the formal introduction of the two approaches, the chapter shows how number marking in language can be represented and how other concepts related to semantic number, in particular, distributivity, cumulativity and collectivity, have been analysed in formal semantic theories.

The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number

This volume offers an overview of current research on grammatical number in language. The chapters Part i of the handbook present foundational notions in the study of grammatical number covering the semantic analyses of plurality, the mass–count distinction, the relationship between number and quantity expressions and the mental representation of number and individuation. The core instance of grammatical number is marking for number distinctions in nominal expressions as in English the book/the books and the chapters in Part ii, Number in the nominal domain, explore morphological, semantic, and syntactic aspects of number marking within noun phrases. The contributions examine morphological marking of number the relationship between syntax and nominal number marking, and the interactions between numeral classifiers with semantic number and number marking. They also address cases of mismatches in form and meaning with respect to number displayed by lexical plurals and collective nouns. The final chapter reviews nominal number processing from the perspective of language pathologies. While number marking on nouns has been the focus of most research on number, number distinctions can also be found in the event domain. Part iii, Number in the event domain, presents an overview of different linguistic means of expressing plurality in the event domain, covering verbal plurality marking, pluractional modifiers of the form Noun preposition Noun, frequency adjectives and dependent indefinites. Part iv provides fifteen case studies examining different aspects of grammatical number marking in a range of typologically diverse languages.

Introduction

This introduction gives an outline of the major issues in the research on grammatical number, covering different types of nominal number marking, the relation between number and individuation, and number in the event domain. The second part of the chapter provides a summary of the chapters of the book, which is divided into four parts: foundations, nominal number, event number, and case studies.

Nominal number in cushitic

Cushitic languages have a number of interesting properties in the category of number. None of these are valid for all Cushitic languages. Number is not obligatorily expressed in various Cushitic languages which have a general number form that is unspecified for number. Nonetheless morphological number marking in the noun is often complex in two ways: there are many competing lexically determined morphological markers and many different constellations of derived singular and derived plurals. Number and gender show complex interactions in Cushitic. Number formatives impose gender and hence different gender values for different number forms in the same lexeme, sometimes apparent gender polarity (singular and plural having opposite values for gender). A theoretically challenging property of some languages is that that there is a third gender, here labelled ‘plural’ because it takes the agreement morphology of 3pl pronouns.

The Syntax of Number Markers

This chapter explores the syntactic significance of number marking based on distributional, formal, and interpretive properties and its parameters of variation. On the basis of these properties, various syntactic analyses of number marking are evaluated. The hypothesis that number marking is hosted in a functional category NumP is introduced and it is shown that it can account for some, but crucially not all, of the properties of number marking. However, the assumption that number marking associates with a functional category, does not imply that it will associate with the same functional category across all languages, nor that it will associate in the same way. Diagnostics are provided to identify where and how on the nominal spine a given number marker associates.