[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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