[Lingtyp] Query: looking for singulatives

Tue May 14 14:00:32 UTC 2019

Dear Silva,

I see that you have included Bora, Miraña, and Tariana in your list. I
imagine you've included them because of the "individualizing" function of
certain classifiers which turn a generic noun into a singular noun (e.g.
Mako [ISO: wpc] *luwa *'guama (a tree of the *Inga* genus)' vs. luwa-*ˀbo *'one
guama fruit'). If so, other Northwest Amazonian languages with nominal
classification systems similar to those of Bora, Miraña and Tariana (an
areal feature) could possibly also be included in the list.

For Mako, you can see a discussion in my dissertation (Rosés Labrada,
2015); for Piaroa (its sister language), you can see Krute (1989). I'd
suggest looking at grammars of Tukanoan languages for additional instances
of this type.

Best,
Jorge
References:

Krute, Laurence Dana. 1989. *Piaroa nominal morphosemantics.* PhD
dissertation, Columbia University.

Rosés Labrada, Jorge Emilio. 2015a. *The Mako language: Vitality, grammar
and classification*. PhD dissertation, University of Western Ontario and
Université Lumière-Lyon 2. URL: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2851/

-------------
Jorge Emilio Rosés Labrada
Assistant Professor, Indigenous Language Sustainability
Chair, LSA Committee on Endangered Languages and their Preservation
<https://www.linguisticsociety.org/about/who-we-are/committees/endangered-languages-and-their-preservation-celp>

4-22 Assiniboia Hall
Department of Linguistics, University of Alberta
Tel: (+1) 780-492-5698
Email: jrosesla at ualberta.ca

*The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6
territory, **and respects the history, languages, and cultures of the First
Nations, Métis, Inuit, *
*and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our
institution.*

On Mon, May 13, 2019 at 3:15 AM Nurmio, Silva M <silva.nurmio at helsinki.fi>
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>
> https://tuhat.helsinki.fi/portal/en/person/sinurmio
> <http://helsinki.academia.edu/SilvaNurmio>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lingtyp mailing list
> Lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo/lingtyp
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lingtyp/attachments/20190514/a8824eaf/attachment.htm>