[Lingtyp] Plural markers on (already) plural pronouns

Martin Haspelmath haspelmath at shh.mpg.de
Fri Nov 15 16:48:31 UTC 2019


Yes, this type is quite common - see Michael Daniel‘s WALS chapter 35 (wals.info). He cites 69 languages with a person-number stem plus plural affix. 

Martin

> Am 15.11.2019 um 17:43 schrieb Geoffrey Haig <geoffrey.haig at uni-bamberg.de>:
> 
> Dear Ponrawee,
> 
> not sure if you're also interested in first and second person pronouns, but in Turkish the first and second person plural pronouns, biz and siz 'we', 'you.PL', can also take the regular plural ending from nouns, yielding biz-ler and siz-ler respectively. These forms add nuances of politeness and other aspects to the pronoun that I have never fully understood, but are doubtless described in the available grammars (try Kerslake and Göksel's (2005) Turkish. A comprehensive grammar. Routledge).
> 
> best
> 
> Geoff
> 
> 
> 
>> Am 15.11.2019 um 17:01 schrieb Ponrawee Prasertsom:
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> I have been looking at a number of Tai languages and found that in some of these languages, plural pronouns can optionally take a plural marker normally used on common nouns. For instance, in Shan (Southwestern Tai), the third person plural pronoun khau can optionally take the plural marker cɯ(nai), viz. khau cɯ(nai)--at least according to Cushing 1871.
>> 
>> Assuming this analysis is correct (if it's not please kindly inform me), I'm wondering how rare this is for pronouns? A quick lookup revealed that a similar phenomenon called "double plural marking" is found in some languages, but seems to be restricted to common nouns only. Does anyone know of any other instances like this for pronouns in other languages?
>> 
>> Sources: Cushing, Josiah Nelson. Grammar of the Shan Language. Rangoon: American Mission Press, 1871.
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> -- 
>> Ponrawee Prasertsom
>> 
>> Graduate Student
>> Department of Linguistics
>> Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University
>> Bangkok, Thailand
>> 
>> 
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