plural agreement for singular subjects

[Stuart Robinson]

Hi, all.

I was wondering whether people on the list know of languages that allow
plural agreement with some subclass of singular nouns. I have found that
in Rotokas (a non-Austronesian language spoken in Bougainville, Papua New
Guinea), neuter subjects (which normally take zero subject agreement)
sometimes occur with the agreement usually found with plural subjects.

For example, here's the usual plural subject agreement (-i) with a plural
subject (riroirara kopiipairara):

riro-irara  kopii-pa-irara tou-pa-i-voi      eisi ruvaru-pa kepa-ia
many-pl.hum sick-dv-pl.hum be-cont-3.pl-pres loc  sick-dv   house-loc
Many sick people are in the medical station. / Plenti sik manmeri ol i 
stap long haus marasin.

And here's plural subject agreement (-i) with a singular neuter noun
(evaova):

evao-va   koki-vira      tou-pa-i-voi
tree-sg.f have.holes-adv be-cont-3.pl-pres
The tree has holes. / Diwai i gat hol.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Stuart Robinson

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| Stuart Robinson <stuart dot robinson at mpi dot nl>  |
| Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics           |
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