Sociological Linguistics

[Ralf-Stefan Georg]

>Since numerals in many languages do not automatically require a plural form
>of a noun, I am not sure what relevance "numerals" have to the point I am
>attempting to make.

Possessing numerals is equivalent to being able to indicate plurality
("five dog").

>And, I perceive a difference between "Viele Hunde haben
>Schwa{"}nze" and "Hunde haben Schwa{"}nze" --- do you not?

Sure, but the latter could be conveyed by "Hund haben Schwanz", in
opposition to, say, "Dies Hund haben Schwanz", "Viele Hund h.S." etc. pp.).
If you need to disambiguate, you do, even if you don't have a morphological
plural in your language.

St.G.

Stefan Georg
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