[Lingtyp] Query: looking for singulatives

MM Jocelyne Fernandez mmjocelynefern at gmail.com
Mon May 13 11:30:11 UTC 2019


Dear Silva, dear all,

> the singulative is that it is a noun form with any marker 
> (inflectional or derivational) that creates a meaning ‘one’ or ‘(one) 
> unit’ when added to a base, i.e. a singulativizing and individuating 
> marker. Bases for singulatives tend to be mass nouns, plurals, 
> collectives of different kinds, general number forms, and sometimes 
> non-nominal bases like adjectives.

This complex problem can be illustrated with French examples:

     • in standard French (at least in Ile-de-France [Paris and the 
surrounding departments]) "chocolat" is both a mass (but needs an 
article, partitive "je mange souvent _du _chocolat" [I often eat 
chocolate) or definite "j'aime _le_ chocolat" [I like chocolate]) and an 
individual object, chocolate sweet/piece of candy  ("j'ai mangé _un_ 
chocolat / _deux_ chocolats" [I ate _one_ / _two_ chocolate sweet(s)] etc.).

     • But your definition including derivatives can be extended to 
regional variants: "chocolat-_ine_" used in (at least)  South-Western 
French for a "chocolate croissant" (a croissant with a chocolate bar 
inside), for what is called in Paris "pain au chocolat". (I even noticed 
recently in a Parisian bread and pastry shop that a shop-assistant had 
difficulties understanding a Belgian customer who asked for a 
"chocolatine".)


     Thus a description of modern French limited to standard French 
could claim that there is *no singulative in French*, but this can be 
refuted as soon as one takes into account regional (even 
extra-territorial) variants of French.


(PS. besides, the suffix -ine is not in itself singulative, as we can 
see in the words "tarte" [tart] and "tartine" [a slice of bread, with 
butter or jam], that both require articles.)


MMJFV

-- 
Prof. M.M.Jocelyne FERNANDEZ-VEST
CNRS & Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
Le 13/05/2019 à 11:51, Hartmut Haberland a écrit :
>
> On the surface at least, rice is [+count] in Danish (/ris/) and 
> [-count] in German (/Reis/). So in a recipe, you would cook ‚the 
> rices‘ (/risene/) in Danish and ‚the rice‘ (/den Reis/) in German.
>
> On the other hand, with spaghetti it is the other way round: Danish 
> /spaghetti/ is singular and [-count], while German /Spaghetti/ is a 
> /plurale tantum/ (hence inherently [+count]).
>
> I am not aware of a singulative in either language to refer to a 
> single piece of spaghetti, while for a single grain of rice, you can 
> say /Reiskorn/ in German (which is, of course, a lexical singulative) 
> but strangely enough also /riskorn/ (not /en ris/) in Danish.
>
> *Hartmut Haberland*
> Professor emeritus
>
> RUC
>
> *Roskilde University*
> Department of Communication and Arts
>
> Universitetsvej 1
> DK-4000 Roskilde
> Telephone: +45 46742841
>
> *Fra:*Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces at listserv.linguistlist.org> *På vegne af 
> *David Gil
> *Sendt:* 13. maj 2019 10:30
> *Til:* lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> *Emne:* Re: [Lingtyp] Query: looking for singulatives
>
> Hi Silva,
>
> In Sinitic languages (especially southern ones), Vietnamese, and 
> elsewhere in the region, there is a construction of the general form
>
> CLF N
>
> i.e. a noun preceded by a numeral classifier.  The resulting 
> construction is almost invariably singular — the exception being cases 
> where the classifier itself has inherent plural semantics.  (In 
> addition, the construction in question is associated with the 
> classificatory semantics of the classifier, plus also various 
> (in)definiteness effects, e.g. it is usually definite in Cantonese but 
> indefinite in Mandarin.)
>
> Is this a singulative?  The only reason not to call it such might be 
> that the classifier is usually considered to be a "separate word", 
> whereas the term "singulative" is generally used in the context of 
> morphology.  However — as Martin Haspelmath frequently reminds us — 
> the notion of wordhood is problematic and often unduly influenced by 
> the standard orthography, which, in the case of Chinese and Vietnamese 
> at least, strongly prejudices us towards a "separate word" analysis.
>
> Indeed, one could perhaps make a case that the familiar articles of 
> many western European languages are also singulatives ...  This is but 
> another example of the problems inherent in the positing of 
> comparative concepts that make reference to the morphology/syntax 
> distinction.  I am not proposing that we do away with this 
> distinction; in particular, in the domain in question, there does seem 
> to be good reason to distinguish between the domains of "Number" 
> (morphological) and "Quantification" (syntactic).  It's just that the 
> abundance of problematic "in-between" cases means that we need to try 
> and make our criteria as explicit as we possibly can.
>
> David
>
> On 13/05/2019 14:15, Nurmio, Silva M wrote:
>
>     Dear all,
>
>     I’m looking for data on singulatives and I’m writing to ask for
>     your help in tracking down more instances of this phenomenon.
>     There is so far no comprehensive list of singulatives in the
>     world’s languages that’s informed by an operational definition of
>     what constitutes a singulative, and my aim is to produce such a
>     database.
>
>     My working definition of the singulative is that it is a noun form
>     with any marker (inflectional or derivational) that creates a
>     meaning ‘one’ or ‘(one) unit’ when added to a base, i.e. a
>     singulativizing and individuating marker. Bases for singulatives
>     tend to be mass nouns, plurals, collectives of different kinds,
>     general number forms, and sometimes non-nominal bases like
>     adjectives. Here are four examples of different types of
>     singulatives under my definition:
>
>     (1) Bayso (Afro-Asiatic): /lúban/ ‘lion(s)’ (general number),
>     singulative /lúban-titi /‘a lion’
>
>     (2) Russian (Indo-European) /gorox/ ‘pea(s)’ (mass), singulative
>     /goroš-ina/ ‘a pea’
>
>     (3) Italian (Indo-European) /cioccolato/ ’chocolate’ (mass),
>     singulative /cioccolat-ino/ ’a chocolate praline, chocolate sweet’
>
>     (4) Welsh (Indo-European) /unigol/ ‘individual’ (adjective),
>     singulative /unigol-yn/ ‘an individual’
>
>     These examples show that singulatives occur in different number
>     systems, and they can be productive or unproductive (like the
>     Russian -/ina/ suffix). I also include diminutive markers which
>     have a singulative function, as seen in (3) (Jurafsky 1996 calls
>     this the ’partitive’ function of diminutives). Forms that are
>     singulatives are often not described as such in grammars
>     (especially types 3 and 4), making them harder to find. I am also
>     including singulatives in older language stages which have since
>     been lost (e.g. Old Irish).
>
>     Below is a list of languages (alphabetical order) on which I
>     already have data. I would be very grateful for any pointers to
>     grammars, language descriptions or other mentions of singulatives
>     in languages which are not on the list, or if you think there are
>     sources for any of the already listed languages that I’m likely to
>     have missed.
>
>     Thank you very much in advance!
>
>     Best wishes,
>
>     Silva Nurmio
>
>     Aari
>
>     Akkadian
>
>     Arabic (several dialects)
>
>     Arbore
>
>     Baiso/Bayso
>
>     Baule
>
>     Berber
>
>     Bidyogo
>
>     Bora
>
>     Breton
>
>     Burushaski
>
>     Cantonese
>
>     Cornish
>
>     Dagaare
>
>     Dutch
>
>     Enets (Forest Enets and Tundra Enets)
>
>     Ewe
>
>     Fox
>
>     Gede'o
>
>     Hebrew
>
>     Imonda
>
>     Italian
>
>     Itelmen
>
>     Kambaata
>
>     Kiowa
>
>     Krongo
>
>     Majang
>
>     Maltese
>
>     Marle (Murle)
>
>     Masa
>
>     Miraña
>
>     Nafusi
>
>     Nahuatl (all dialects?)
>
>     Ojibwe (all dialects?)
>
>     Old Irish
>
>     Oromo (Borana dialect)
>
>     Resígaro
>
>     Russian
>
>     Shilluk
>
>     Shona
>
>     Sidamo
>
>     Swahili
>
>     Tariana
>
>     Tewa
>
>     Tigre
>
>     Tiwa
>
>     Towa
>
>     Turkana
>
>     Ukrainian
>
>     Welsh
>
>     Yiddish
>
>     Zulu
>
>     Dr Silva Nurmio
>
>     Research Fellow
>     Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
>     Fabianinkatu 24 (P.O. Box 4)
>     00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
>
>     https://tuhat.helsinki.fi/portal/en/person/sinurmio
>
>
>
>
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>
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>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> David Gil
> Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
> Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
> Kahlaische Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany
> Email: gil at shh.mpg.de <mailto:gil at shh.mpg.de>
> Office Phone (Germany): +49-3641686834
> Mobile Phone (Indonesia): +62-81281162816
>
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-- 
Prof. M.M.Jocelyne FERNANDEZ-VEST CNRS & Université Sorbonne Nouvelle
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