[Lingtyp] number irregularities in property words

Wed May 3 01:35:37 UTC 2023

Dear Rita and Michael,
It seems you don’t have Tagalog on your list. In Tagalog, property terms reduplicate the first syllable of the root when the Topic of the clause is plural, e.g.

Malaki ang isda. ’The fish is big.’
Malalaki ang mga isda. ’The fish (pl) are big.’ (the plural marker (mga [mangá]) is optional)
[ma-la-laki]PRED      [ang mga isda]TOPIC
intensifier-REDUP-big SPEC pl   fish

All the best,
Randy
——
Professor Randy J. LaPolla（罗仁地), PhD FAHA 
Center for Language Sciences
Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences
Beijing Normal University at Zhuhai
A302, Muduo Building, #18 Jinfeng Road, Zhuhai City, Guangdong, China

https://randylapolla.info <https://randylapolla.info/>
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6100-6196    

邮编：519087
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北京师范大学珠海校区
人文和社会科学高等研究院
语言科学研究中心 

> On 3 May 2023, at 12:23 AM, Michael Daniel <misha.daniel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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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