[Lingtyp] Query: looking for singulatives

Thu May 16 16:55:22 UTC 2019

I brought it up mainly for its description of the singulative system in
Kipsigis, since Silva said they were interested in data on singulatives.

For the little that it's worth, I don't agree that the dissertation fails
to give perspicuous descriptions or explanations, and I don't find much in
there that seems high-risk or excessively complex.  But I can't see us
coming to agreement about that, especially in an email discussion, so I'll
leave things by recommending that interested parties read the dissertation
themselves and make up their own minds.

All the best,
Neil

On Thu, May 16, 2019 at 12:15 PM Martin Haspelmath <haspelmath at shh.mpg.de>
wrote:

> Thanks for pointing this out, I don't see how Kouneli's dissertation would
> be relevant to a cross-linguistic study of singulatives. It makes a large
> number of very specific high-risk assumptions, and describes some phenomena
> of Kipsigis (Nilotic) in a very complex way.
>
> At the same time, Kouneli says explicitly (p. 40) that "a uniform analysis
> of all types of singulatives is unlikely" - without giving a definition of
> "singulative". So the goal of this type of research seems to be very
> different from that of finding cross-linguistic generalizations and
> explaining them.
>
> Maybe I don't understand it properly, but it seems that this approach
> offers neither perspicuous descriptions nor any clear claims about
> cross-linguistic distributions or explanations. I'd be happy to be shown
> wrong.
>
> Martin
>
> Am 16.05.2019 um 16:16 schrieb Neil Myler <myler at bu.edu>:
>
> 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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>>
> <Kouneli 2019 The syntax of number and modification.pdf>
>
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