Feature GB198: Can an adnominal numeral agree with the noun in gender/noun class?

Patrons: Jeremy Collins and Jay Latarche

Description ⇫

Summary

For this feature, we are interested in gender/noun classes (classes which nouns belong to based upon properties such as gender, animacy, or shape and can be identified through agreement with a modifier). We are not looking at noun classifiers (GB057) (classifiers classify the noun and occur independently from other elements). This feature asks whether adnominal numerals show agreement with the gender of nouns they modify. This system of agreement should be productive.

If only the numeral "one" shows this agreement, that is sufficient.

Procedure

  1. Code 1 if adnominal numerals agree in gender/noun class with nouns in at least one context (e.g. in the plural).
  2. Code 0 if the author states that there is no gender/noun class system, or it is apparent from the data there is no gender/noun class system.
  3. Code 0 if there is evidence of a gender/noun class system but the author states that the system is no longer productive in the context of adnominal numerals.
  4. Code ? if the author does not discuss a gender/noun class system and the data is too limited to assess whether one exists.

Examples

Abkhaz (ISO 639-3: abk, Glottolog: abkh1244)

Coded 1. The cardinals take class agreement markers. ‘One’ has suppletive forms for humans and non-humans. For non-human nouns, cardinal numerals take the suffix -ba/pa. For human nouns they take the suffix -j°ə(-k'). Ordinal and other numerals take no agreement (Chirikba 2003: 34–35; Hewitt 2010: 33–35).

Cicipu (ISO 639-3: awc, Glottolog: cici1237)

Coded 1. The adnominal numeral agrees with the noun in noun class (McGill 2009: 285-286).

kà-bárá      ká-mpà     kà-yápù
NC1-old.man  AG1-this   AG1-two
‘these two old men’ (McGill 2009: 203)

Aja (Sudan) (ISO 639-3: aja, Glottolog: ajas1235)

Coded 0. There is no grammatical gender system. Different words are used to distinguish male from female persons; to indicate whether an animal is male or female, a word for ‘male’ or ‘female’ is added to the noun (Santandrea 1976: 73–75).

Yuki [ISO 639-3: yuk, Glottolog: yuki1243]

Coded ?. Adnominals seem to be able to take patient-argument marking; this occurs only when the noun is animate. The data is too scant to tell which is a consequence of the other (Balodis 2011: 176–179).

Further reading

Corbett, Greville G. 1991. Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Corbett, Greville G. 2013. Number of Genders. In Matthew S. Dryer & Martin Haspelmath (eds), The world atlas of language structures online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

References

Balodis, Uldis Ivars Jānis. 2011. Yuki grammar in its areal context with sketches of Huchnom and Coast Yuki. Santa Barbara: University of California. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Chirikba, Viacheslav A. 2003. Abkhaz. (Languages of the World: Materials, 119.) Munich: Lincom Europa.

Hewitt, George B. 2010. Abkhaz: A comprehensive self-tutor. Munich: Lincom Europa.

McGill, Stuart John. 2009. Gender and person agreement in Cicipu discourse. London: University of London. (Doctoral dissertation.)

Santandrea, Stefano. 1976. The Kresh Group, Aja and Baka languages (Sudan): A linguistic contribution. Napoli: Istituto Universitario Orientale.

The noun class features

Agreement within the noun phrase

Numeral classifiers


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Customize map markers:
0 absent 1664
1 present 395
? Not known 149
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Map ⇫


Values ⇫

Name Glottocode Family Macroarea Contributor Value Source Comment