[Lingtyp] Query: looking for singulatives

[Neil Myler]

Dear Silva,
Chapter 2 of this recent NYU dissertation by Maria Kouneli contains a lot
of germane discussion.
Best,
Neil

On Mon, May 13, 2019 at 3:46 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>
>
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>
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