p 2021

Nouns after numerals: singular, plural or neither?

CAHA, Pavel

Basic information

Original name

Nouns after numerals: singular, plural or neither?

Authors

CAHA, Pavel (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution)

Edition

Higher School of Economics Linguistics Colloquium, 2021

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Vyžádané přednášky

Field of Study

60203 Linguistics

Country of publisher

Russian Federation

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14210/21:00119302

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

nouns; adjectives; numerals; number; agreement

Tags

Tags

International impact
Změněno: 5/1/2022 17:31, doc. Mgr. Pavel Caha, Ph.D.

Abstract

V originále

There seems to be a division among languages depending on whether numerals combine with a noun in the singular (e.g., Turkish, Estonian) or plural (e.g., English, Czech). A relatively common approach is to explain this variation by invoking the notion of a "semantic parameter." The idea is that the singular (or plural) in languages of the first type does not mean the same thing as in languages of the other type. In this talk, I suggest an alternative way of thinking about the data. According to this alternative, the noun after numerals always has a special number (call it "counting" number) that should not be unified with the singular or the plural denotation. When the counted noun looks the same as either the singular or plural, this is because the special >>> "counting" number is morphologically realized in the same way as singular or plural (syncretism). The evidence for this idea will be drawn from a variety of languages including South Saami, Serbian, Bulgarian, Ossetic, as well as a particular agreement pattern in Russian feminine paucals.

Links

GC21-12611J, research and development project
Name: Morfologie shody (Acronym: AgroMorph)
Investor: Czech Science Foundation, Russia/RFBR