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Hi David G.<br><br>
Here are two examples taken from page 143 of Esser's grammar of Mori
Bawah (Sulawesi, Indonesia). The plural marker <i>meN</i>-
preceding the verb in these cases indicates 3 or more. The plural
pronoun, a clitic following the verb, indicates 2 or more.<br><br>
<i>men-tahane='ira<br>
</i>pl-go.thither.upward-3pl<br>
‘they are on their way up’<br><br>
<i>
me-ramai='ira=mo
i Laengko<br>
</i>pl-come.hither-3pl-perf
pn Laengko<br>
‘Laengko and those with him are already coming’<br><br>
Although Esser does not provide the clinching example, if you wanted to
indicated that just Laengko was coming, you would say:<br><br>
<i>
ramai=o=mo
i Laengko<br>
</i>come.hither-3sg-perf pn
Laengko<br><br>
To round out the picture, you could also say <i>ramai'iramo i
Laengko</i> that is, with pural pronoun but without plural marker
on the verb. This sentence has two interpretations: as dual
("Laengko and his companion are coming") or, as is common, use
of the plural to indicate respect toward a singular indiidual ("the
respected Laengko is coming"). <br><br>
<b>Reference</b>:<br><br>
Esser, S.J. 1927–1933. Klank- en vormleer van het Morisch [Phonology and
morphology of Mori]. 2 volumes. (Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch
Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, 67/3 & 67/4). Leiden: Vros
(1927); Bandoeng: Nix (1933). <br><br>
Yours,<br><br>
David M.<br><br>
At 11/13/2008 07:22 PM +0100, David Gil wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Dear fellow
Austronesianists,<br><br>
I am interested in the cross-linguistic distribution of a construction
<br>
type in which an associative plural meaning, eg. 'John and his <br>
associates', results from a singular noun triggering plural number <br>
agreement on the verb, as illustrated in the following examples from
<br>
Roon (a SHWNG language spoken in the Cenderawasih bay of New
Guinea):<br><br>
(1) Amos-i i-berif<br>
Amos-PERS 3SG:ANIM-laugh<br>
'Amos is laughing'<br><br>
(2) Amos-i su-berif<br>
Amos-PERS 3DU:ANIM-laugh<br>
'Amos and his friend are laughing'<br><br>
(3) Amos-i si-berif<br>
Amos-PERS 3PL:ANIM-laugh<br>
'Amos and his friends are laughing'<br><br>
Example (1) shows ordinary agreement, with a singular subject triggering
<br>
singular verb agreement. However, examples (2) and (3) illustrate
how <br>
an associative plural interpretation is derived via disagreement, with
<br>
the still-singular subject occurring in construction with dual- and <br>
plural-subject marked verbs respectively. We might therefore call
the <br>
construction in (2) and (3) an Associative Plural via Disagreement, or
<br>
ASPD.<br><br>
My question is: how common is this ASPD construction in the languages of
<br>
the world? I would be very grateful for examples of other
languages, <br>
Austronesian or otherwise, that have ASPDs. I would also appreciate
any <br>
pointers to discussion of this construction in the literature. At
<br>
present I am familiar with just two: Grev Corbett's 2000 book on
<br>
Number, where he cites similar examples from Haruai (Papuan), Maltese,
<br>
and the Talitsk dialect of Russian, and Daniel and Moravcsik's chapter
<br>
on associative plurals in the World Atlas of Language Structures, where
<br>
they cite Plains Cree as having a similar construction.<br><br>
A major challenge in typology is to collect negative data, ie. reliable
<br>
reports that a certain language lacks a particular construction (as <br>
opposed to it simply not being mentioned in a couple of grammar
books). <br>
Thus, I would also greatly appreciate definitive reports that <br>
such-and-such a language does *not* have ASPDs. (Whereas for
languages <br>
with no verbal number agreement, the absence of ASPDs is a logical <br>
necessity, for languages with verbal number agreement, the absence of
<br>
ASPDs becomes a substantive and interesting fact about the
language.) <br>
For starters, English, even though it has verbal number agreement, lacks
<br>
an ASPD: you can't say *'John are laughing' to mean 'John and his <br>
friends are laughing', as in (3) above. The same is true also for <br>
Tagalog, with its optional plural number marking on the verb in the <br>
actor-topic voice. So if the language(s) you are familiar with have
<br>
verbal number agreement but lack an ASPD, please let me know
too!<br><br>
Thanks and best wishes,<br><br>
David<br><br>
-- <br>
David Gil<br><br>
Department of Linguistics<br>
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology<br>
Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany<br><br>
Telephone: 49-341-3550321 Fax: 49-341-3550119<br>
Email: gil@eva.mpg.de<br>
Webpage:
<a href="http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/</a><br><br>
<br>
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