<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Re: plural agreement for singular subjects</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>I think the nice example Guillaume cites is an instance of the ‘evasive plural’, avoiding the use of ‘he’ or ‘she’. (Some languages use a neuter to evade the masculine/plural choice in related but not identical contexts.)<BR>
<BR>
Other phenomena which are general, and which aren’t I suspect what Stuart has in mind, are:<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><OL><LI><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>associative uses of the plural or dual, in those instances where it is just the agreement which shows associative use. For instance, in the Talitsk dialect of Russian you say the equivalent of ‘my brother have arrived’ to indicate my brother and family.
</SPAN></FONT><LI><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>respect: e.g. dual agreement with a singular subject in Kobon, to show respect
</SPAN></FONT><LI><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>committee nouns in English: the committee <I>have </I>decided
</SPAN></FONT><LI><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>instances of attraction: Rise in email viruses <I>threaten </I>net. (Guardian 4.Aug.2001)<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></OL><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><BR>
Examples of all these are in <I>Number </I>and <I>Agreement</I> (CUP). What Stuart has is a bit different. <BR>
<BR>
Best<BR>
<BR>
Grev<BR>
Greville Corbett<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
On 31/1/07 08:48, "guillaume cnrs" <segerer@VJF.CNRS.FR> wrote:<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>Hi<BR>
Would it seem stupid to mention english ? There is a famous song by Sting with these words :<BR>
If you love <B>somebody</B>, set <B>them </B>free (<a href="http://www.loglar.com/song.php?id=16187)">http://www.loglar.com/song.php?id=16187)</a><BR>
Being a non-native amateur english speaker, I wonder if you would accept words such as "someone", "somebody" as a 'subclass of singular nouns'.<BR>
Regards<BR>
Guillaume Segerer<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT><BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'>I was wondering whether people on the list know of languages that allow <BR>
plural agreement with some subclass of singular nouns. I have found that <BR>
in Rotokas (a non-Austronesian language spoken in Bougainville, Papua New <BR>
Guinea), neuter subjects (which normally take zero subject agreement) <BR>
sometimes occur with the agreement usually found with plural subjects. <BR>
<BR>
For example, here's the usual plural subject agreement (-i) with a plural <BR>
subject (riroirara kopiipairara): <BR>
<BR>
riro-irara kopii-pa-irara tou-pa-i-voi eisi ruvaru-pa kepa-ia <BR>
many-pl.hum sick-dv-pl.hum be-cont-3.pl-pres loc sick-dv house-loc <BR>
Many sick people are in the medical station. / Plenti sik manmeri ol i stap long haus marasin. <BR>
<BR>
And here's plural subject agreement (-i) with a singular neuter noun <BR>
(evaova): <BR>
<BR>
evao-va koki-vira tou-pa-i-voi <BR>
tree-sg.f have.holes-adv be-cont-3.pl-pres <BR>
The tree has holes. / Diwai i gat hol. <BR>
<BR>
Thanks in advance. <BR>
<BR>
Regards, <BR>
Stuart Robinson <BR>
<BR>
+ -----------------------------------------------------+ <BR>
| Stuart Robinson <stuart dot robinson at mpi dot nl> | <BR>
| Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics | <BR>
| Postbus 310 | <BR>
| 6500 AH Nijmegen | <BR>
| The Netherlands | <BR>
| +31 (0)64 854 6708 (mobile) | <BR>
| <a href="http://www.mpi.nl/Members/StuartRobinson">http://www.mpi.nl/Members/StuartRobinson</a> | <BR>
+ -----------------------------------------------------+ <BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT></BLOCKQUOTE><FONT FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><SPAN STYLE='font-size:12.0px'><BR>
<BR>
-- <BR>
Greville G. Corbett<BR>
<BR>
Surrey Morphology Group<BR>
CMC <BR>
School of Arts, Communication and Humanities<BR>
University of Surrey<BR>
Guildford email: g.corbett@surrey.ac.uk<BR>
Surrey, GU2 7XH FAX: +44 1483 686201<BR>
Great Britain phone: +44 1483 682849<BR>
<a href="http://www.surrey.ac.uk/LIS/SMG/">http://www.surrey.ac.uk/LIS/SMG/</a><BR>
<BR>
</SPAN></FONT>
</BODY>
</HTML>