Feature GB042: Is there productive overt morphological singular marking on nouns?

Patrons: Hedvig Skirgård

Description

Summary

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.

Procedure

  1. Consider the section in the grammar that deals with number or nominal morphology.
  2. If the author describes a bound marker of singular number on the noun that occurs regularly, code 1.
  3. If the only marking of singular number occurs on nouns derived from other word classes (adjectives, verbs, etc.), or if it only occurs only a small subset of nouns, code 0.
  4. If the grammar mentions that singular number is not marked productively, or that it is marked somewhere else than on the noun, code as 0.
  5. If the grammar does not describe number marking at all and you have a reason to believe that the author may have missed it, code ?.
  6. If the grammar does not describe number, you encounter no examples of number marking, and the grammar is otherwise comprehensive, code 0.

Examples

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.

Further reading

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

References

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
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Values

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment