Feature GB046: Is there an associative plural marker for nouns?

Patrons: Hedvig Skirgård

Description ⇫

Summary

This feature aims to cover any marking that marks that the reference contains entities associated with an entity X ('X and other people/things associated with X') instead of indicating additive plural ('several instances of X'). For example, the King-s went to the market means several kings went. An associative plural interpretation of -s would be 'the King and his entourage went to the market'. This marking does not need to be bound to the noun. If the additive plural also has this function, this also counts.

The associative marker may be described as a pronoun. Comitative markers do not generally count. The marker should be linked to the person whom the others are associated with, and not the other way around.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if there is a marker of the noun (bound or free) that instead of, or in addition to, marking additive plural ('several X') marks that the reference contains entities associated with X: 'X and other people/things associated with X'.
  2. If this use is not mentioned, code ? and write "Not mentioned" in the comment field.
  3. If a source explicitly says that this use does not exist, or a fieldworker explicitly says that they have not encountered it, then code 0.

Examples

Zulu (ISO 639-3: zul, Glottolog: zulu1248)

Like many Atlantic-Congo languages, Zulu has a noun class system with singular and plural classes. There are plural noun class markers that can also function as associative plurals, i.e. not denoting several entities of the same type but rather 'x and things associated with x'. Zulu is coded as 1 for GB046. Poulus & Msimang (1998: 36) write:

"It may be noted here that a plural form such as oVelaphi could refer to either Velaphi and his companions or associates, or it could refer to two people who have the same name – these two types of plurals are some­ times referred to as the "associative" and "numerical" plurals respec­tively."

Moravcsik (2003: 469) gives two examples of associative plural marking in Japanese and Hungarian, these both qualify as 1 for GB046:

Hungarian (ISO 639-3: hun, Glottolog: hung1274)

Péter-ék
Peter-APL
'Peter and his family or friends or associates' Moravcsik (2003: 469)

Japanese (ISO 639-3: jpn, Glottolog: ucl1643)

Tanaka-tachi
Tanaka-APL
'Tanaka and his family or friends or associates' Moravcsik (2003: 469)

Further reading

Daniel, Michael & Edith Moravcsik. 2013. The Associative Plural. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

References

Moravcsik, Edith. 2003. A semantic analysis of associative plurals. Studies in Language 27(3). 469–503.

Poulos, George & Christian T. Msimang. 1998. A linguistic analysis of Zulu. Cape Town: Via Afrika.

Morphological number marking

Phonologically free number marking

Number agreement

Other


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0 absent 1148
1 present 331
? Not known 849
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Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment