[Lingtyp] number irregularities in property words

[Michael Daniel]

Dear colleagues,


we are currently working on a project on number-conditioned irregularities
in property words, such as the encoding of participant number via irregular
stem change in Kiowa property verbs, e.g. tsêy (sg.) and tsáadów (pl.)
‘short’ (Harbour & McKenzie, 2022
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?gyCoqj>) or the suppletive
adjective liten/små
‘small’ in Swedish (see Hippisley et al., 2004
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?CwTCDM>, Vafaeian, 2013
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?HfLKZb>, Maiden, 2014
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?2bt1Lr>, Nurmio, 2017
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?QWOzBJ>, Plank & Vincent, 2019
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?eHA8DU>). By now, we are aware of some
100 languages where some property words demonstrate some kind of
irregularity (see the appendix in the link below), and we want to find
more. If you are aware of any number-related irregularities of some (as
compared to other) property words in any other language you know and/or
work on, we would be very happy if you could let us know.

To account for this phenomenon cross-linguistically in a comparable way, we
compiled a “probing list” of property words which includes several
“prototypical” adjectives (in the sense of Dixon, 1982
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?Cftrym>), including ‘*young*’, ‘*old*’,
‘*big*’, ‘*small*’, ‘*long*’, ‘*short*’, ‘*good*’, ‘*black*’, and are
systematically looking for number-related irregularities in these lexical
items, but would be interested in mentions of eventual irregularities in
other property words, too. Note that the property words need not be true
adjectives (i.e. a morphosyntactic class clearly separated from both verbs
and nouns), so that adjectival verbs and adjectival nouns (aka verby vs.
nouny adjectives) are also relevant for our study.



Typical patterns of irregularities include:

   -

   irregular number encoding, such as lexically constrained affixation
   -

   suppletion for number stricto sensu, such as when many property words
   show agreement morphology but a few also use a different stem or at least
   weak suppletion for non-singular value(s)
   -

   use of different stems / lexical items in relation to singular vs.
   non-singular referents in languages with no regular way to encode number
   distinction in property words otherwise

We would be very happy to know about any such cases in languages of your
expertise. Please answer directly to us. You may either simply provide a
reference to a description / discussion, or, if none exists, just let us
know as a p.c.; in either case, we would probably ask you several
additional questions.

To avoid making this email, which is already long enough, even longer,
below we only provide references to the main theoretical discussions of
suppletion in property words we are aware of. The full list of languages
with number-conditioned irregularities we know of is provided in the
following googledoc together with references (we opened a possibility to
comment on it):



appendix
<https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TisoHarKbTtiPy-8bupF2w0koxL_IP3485E5NFzEw1E/edit#>

sincerely,

Rita Popova, Michael Daniel

References:

Dixon, R. M. (1982). Where have All the Adjectives Gone?: And Other Essays
in Semantics and Syntax. DE GRUYTER MOUTON.
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ZlB25Z>
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110822939

Harbour, D., & McKenzie, A. (2022). 19 Grammatical simplexity: Number in
Kiowa. In P. Acquaviva & M. Daniel (Eds.), Number in the World’s Languages
(pp. 693–728). De Gruyter. <https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ZlB25Z>
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110622713-020

Hippisley, A., Chumakina, M., Corbett, G., & Brown, D. (2004). Suppletion:
Frequency, categories and distribution of stems. Studies in Language - STUD
LANG, 28. <https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ZlB25Z>
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.28.2.05hip

Maiden, M. (2014). Two suppletive adjectives in Megleno-Romanian. Revue
Romane. Langue et Litterature. International Journal of Romance Languages
and Literatures, 49, 32–52. <https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ZlB25Z>
https://doi.org/10.1075/RRO.49.1.02MAI

Nurmio, S. (2017). The development and typology of number suppletion in
adjectives. Diachronica, 34, 127–174.
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ZlB25Z>
https://doi.org/10.1075/DIA.34.2.01NUR

Plank, F., & Vincent, N. (2019). Suppletion: Questions for History and
Theory. Transactions of the Philological Society, 117(3), 319–337.
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ZlB25Z>
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968X.12176

Vafaeian, G. (2013). Typology of nominal and adjectival suppletion. STUF -
Language Typology and Universals, 66(2).
https://doi.org/10.1524/stuf.2013.0007
<https://www.zotero.org/google-docs/?ZlB25Z>
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