[Lingtyp] Query: looking for singulatives

Sat May 18 10:47:40 UTC 2019

Dear all,

Thank you very much to everyone who has commented on this query and sent me examples and references! Many people also sent me messages outside the mailing list, so my list of languages with potential singulatives has already grown a lot - if anyone would like an updated list at any point, let me know!

I'm also grateful to all, especially Jan, Martin and David, who queried my definition and suggested emendations. I'll take this onboard as I get going with this project. David's point about numeral classifiers is particularly something I need to work on and I agree that there are instances that may come under the singulative category. I hope to have the chance to discuss this further with some of you at SLE and ALT!

Best wishes,
Silva
________________________________
From: Neil Myler <myler at bu.edu>
Sent: 16 May 2019 19:55
To: Martin Haspelmath
Cc: Nurmio, Silva M; lingtyp at listserv.linguistlist.org
Subject: Re: [Lingtyp] Query: looking for singulatives

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<mailto: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<mailto: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<mailto: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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