Non-inflectional plural in yucatec maya

This chapter examines the morphosyntactic properties of optional, non-inflectional plural marking in Yucatec Maya. Evidence is presented that suggests that the non-inflectional plural in Yucatec Maya adjoins to the Determiner Phrase rather than heading the Number Phrase as in better-known languages. Plural marking cannot occur inside of compounds, derivational morphology, or on a prenominal adjective. Additionally, it can adjoin to the second linear noun of a conjoined noun phrase and modify either or both of the conjuncts. The results of a sentence production experiment with speakers of Yucatec Maya are summarized and provide additional support for the Determiner Phrase–adjoined hypothesis. The Yucatec Maya facts are discussed in the wider context of cross-linguistic variation in the typology of plural marking and the implications for linguistic theory and models of language processing.

Inverse number in dagaare

This chapter examines the inverse number system in Dagaare (Gur; Niger–Congo). Inverse number systems possess a number morpheme which for some nouns encodes the plural interpretation while for others it encodes the singular interpretation. This chapter argues that a principled lexical semantic classification underlies the inverse number strategy in Dagaare, guiding whether for a particular noun the inverse morpheme codes the singular or the plural interpretation. The chapter further explores the functional grounding of inverse number, in terms of frequency and individuation, and presents a formal semantic account of the inverse number system.

Production and comprehension studies on the mass–count distinction in yudja

This chapter discusses the grammar of counting in Yudja, a Brazilian Indigenous language. Based on experimental studies with children and adults, the chapter shows that substance-denoting nouns may directly interact with the counting system in the language (constructions with numerals, constructions with count quantifiers such as ‘many’ and ‘size’ adjectives like ‘big’). In presenting the results of the studies for Yudja, the chapter exemplifies how psycholinguistic methods (particularly from language acquisition) can be a useful tool in fieldwork research.

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.

Japanese -tati and generalized associative plurals

This chapter presents descriptive generalizations of plural marking in Japanese with the morpheme -tati and proposes an account for its distributional and interpretive properties that are puzzling in many ways. The semantic peculiarities of -tati plurals, such as their tendency to be definite and the lack of generic and kind interpretations, result from the use of -tati as an associative plural marker. When -tati attaches to an individual-denoting expression, it denotes a plurality that consists of the referent of the expression and entities associated with. It is argued that -tati maintains this associative meaning even when it combines with a common noun. The extended notion of associativity allows X-tati, where X is a common noun, to include non-Xs in its denotation as long as such entities are closely associated with X, yielding similative plurals. This potential heterogeneity can solve most, if not all, of the puzzles posed by -tati plurals.

Nominal Number and Language Pathologies

This chapter provides an overview of the evidence on grammatical number processing taken from cognitive neuropsychology, including developmental delays and impairments of language (e.g. developmental language disorder, and Williams syndrome) and aphasia, an acquired language impairment after brain injury. These types of language impairment can give insight into the functional architecture of nominal number processing by looking at error patterns that arise in each of the aforementioned populations. By classifying observed responses in language production tasks into non-number and number errors, we are able to reveal underlying mechanisms of syntactic rules and their representations when they develop, but also learn about processes and representation of number when this information breaks down.

Verbal Number in Chadic, with Special Reference to Hausa

The chapter provides a general overview of the formal marking of pluractionality in Chadic languages and its observable interpretive effects, with a special focus of Hausa. Section 29.2 introduces the three major strategies for marking pluractionality in Chadic (reduplication, infixing/ablauting, suffixation), before discussing possible correspondences between formal marking and interpretation. The empirical focus lies on languages that do not figure prominently in earlier works on pluractionality in Chadic. The section also contains a case study on the interpretation of different ways of pluractional marking in West Chadic Bole. Section 29.3 introduces the basic patterns of pluractional marking in Hausa, and their basic semantic interpretation in terms of distribution over participants or places. It then discusses secondary, pragmatically inferred meaning effects in terms of abundance, individuation, or intensification. The chapter ends with a discussion of why pluractional marking in Hausa does not easily allow for iterative event interpretations.

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.