This question concerns a bound grammatical marker of singular number on nouns. The marker should occur with an open set of nouns, not with a restricted set. Absence of plural marking does not count for a 1 here (hence the emphasis on ‘overt’ in the feature question). This feature contrasts with GB316 Is singular number regularly marked in the noun phrase by a phonologically free element? which focuses on the non-bound marking of singular number. For more on bound marking, please see this page. Bound marking of number on nouns derived from other word classes (such as adjectives or verbs) does not suffice for a 1.
Number marking is often fused with marking of other categories, such as definiteness/specificity or gender/noun class. It is possible for the number marker to also signal other functions and still trigger a 1 code, as long as these other functions do not interfere with the distinctions in number and as long as number marking is productive.
Akan (ISO 639-3: aka, Glottolog: akan1250)
Akan has a noun class system marked by prefixes on nouns that distinguishes between singular and plural number. There are 6 noun classes. These noun classes prefixes mark number as well as noun class and are bound to the noun. o-/ɔ- is the prefix for noun class 1 which is singular, and a-/e- for noun class 6 which is plural. Here is an example with the stem bɔfo ‘angel' (Osam 1994: 120). This is an example of a 1 code.
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| ‘angel’ | ɔ-bɔfo | a-bɔfo |
Swedish (ISO 639-3: swe, Glottolog: swed1254)
Swedish has suffixes for plural number, but singular is not regularly marked. However, there are some instances where it is possible to analyze certain nouns as having a singular suffix. For example, the word pojke ‘boy’ (Skirgård p.c. 2020).
| singular | plural | |
|---|---|---|
| ‘orange’ | apelsin | apelsiner |
| ‘boy’ | pojke | pojkar |
However, Swedish is an example of code 0 for this feature. Even if there are some nouns that could be analyzed as having singular marking, this is not a regular, productive pattern. Singular number in Swedish is usually marked by the absence of the plural suffix. This does not count for a 1 code.
Corbett, Greville G. 2000. Number. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Osam, Emmanuel Kweku Ahen. 1994. Aspects of Akan grammar: A functional perspective. Eugene: University of Oregon. (Doctoral dissertation.)
Morphological number marking
Phonologically free number marking
Number agreement within the noun phrase
Other
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| 0 | absent | 1916 | |
| 1 | present | 425 | |
| ? | Not known | 101 |
| Name | Glottocode | Family | Macroarea | Contributor | Value | Source | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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