[Lingtyp] Query: looking for singulatives

[Neil Myler]

Sorry, the relevant chapter is actually chapter 3.
Neil

On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 10:16 AM Neil Myler <myler at bu.edu> wrote:

> 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>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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/20190516/cf6adaa8/attachment.htm>