Feature GB039: Is there nonphonological allomorphy of noun number markers?

Patrons: Jeremy Collins and Jay Latarche

Description ⇫

Summary

Are there different number markers for a single number category? And is the choice between these markers unpredictable from the marker a noun receives in another number category? For example, are there different plural markers while there is only one (or no) singular marker? Or do two nouns receive different singular markers but the same plural marker? This feature targets bound number markers, free number markers, and clitics.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if there are elements marking number on nouns (excluding pronouns), whether they are attached to the noun or not,
  2. And it is not entirely predictable what the plural marker will be by looking at the singular marker on the nouns and vice versa.
  3. Code 0 if you can predict what the plural marker will be from the singular marking and vice versa.

Examples

Siwu (ISO 639-3: akp, Glottolog: siwu1238)

Coded 1. Nouns that take on the noun class marked by ɔ in the singular, are either marked by ma or si in the plural. It is not predictable from looking at the singular marking to determine what the plural marker will be. The table below is from Dingemanse (2011: 110–112).

Screenshot 2020-09-02 at 17 23 22

Wolof (ISO 639-3: wol, Glottolog: nucl1347)

Coded 0. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the singular class and the plural class. It can be predicted from the singular class what the plural class will be (McLaughlin 1997:3).

Table of Wolof noun class and number markers, based on McLaughlin 1997:3.

Singular Plural
k ñ
b y
g y
j y/ñ*
l y
m y
s y
w y
  • Nouns belonging to the j-glass in singular form take either ñ or y in plural, but this does not depend on the noun root but on the speaker (McLaughlin 1997:3).

Further reading

Corbett, Greville G. 1991. Gender (Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Corbett, Greville G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

References

Dingemanse, Mark. 2011. The meaning and use of ideophones in Siwu. Nijmegen: Radboud University. (Doctoral dissertation.)

McLaughlin, Fiona. 1997. Noun classification in Wolof: When affixes are not renewed. Studies in African linguistics 26. 1–28.

Morphological number marking

Phonologically free number marking

Number agreement

Other


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0 absent 1625
1 present 516
? Not known 225
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Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment