31.2020, Qs: The Typology of Pluralia Tantum Nouns

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LINGUIST List: Vol-31-2020. Fri Jun 19 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.2020, Qs: The Typology of Pluralia Tantum Nouns

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Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2020 01:15:58
From: İsa Kerem Bayırlı [ibayirli at edu.edu.tr]
Subject: The Typology of Pluralia Tantum Nouns

 
Dear All,

There seems to be some cross-linguistic variation as to whether a language has
pluralia tantum nouns. English contains a set of nouns that are syntactically
usable only in the plural form (pants, scissors etc.) even though such nouns
seem to denote non-plural entities. In Turkish, on the other hand, there do
not seem to be nouns of this sort.

I was wondering if there is any typological work that provides a list of
languages that have pluralia tantum nouns. 

More specifically, I am interested in the following generalization:

If a language possesses pluralia tantum nouns, 
then there is at least one type of nominal modification elements (adjectives,
numerals, demostratives etc..) that exhibits obligatory plural agreement (i.e.
plural concord) with the head noun.

Please do let me know if you are aware of any languages that seem to
invalidate the generalization given above.

Best Regards,
İsa Kerem Bayırlı
TOBB University of Economics and Technology
Ankara, Turkey
 

Linguistic Field(s): Typology



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