[Lingtyp] Summary numeral in the world languages

[Lora Litvinova]

Dear all,

Kugama, an Adamawa language of Nigeria (ISO 639-3: kow; Glottocode:
kuga1239), has noun phrases that also summarize the number of elements
involved in nominal coordination, see examples below. Structurally, these
phrases are possessive constructions with a numeral as a head and a
possessive pronominal as a modifier. More information about these
constructions can be found in my PhD dissertation (Litvinova 2023) that
will be available online after the defense in December 2023.

(1)   Ɔ̀zūrúwā   ɗéè      Lúkpɛ̂wà    à        Bɛ̀nā     tì
sɛ́ɛ́=kī

       Ozuruwa  CONJ  Luikpewa   COM   Bena    PROG   fight=NMLZ

       níLsá̰ā̰=L=rī=L=rē

       three=GEN=POSS=GEN=3PL.HUM.POSS.ALIEN

      ‘Ozuruwa, Luikpewa and Bena are fighting. All three of them.’



(2)  ā       kā=tí         dìŋ=L           kísā          ɗéè
dìŋ=L           zɛ᷇m

      1SG  see=PFV   tree=GEN baobab     CONJ    tree=GEN  tamarind

      à        dìŋ=L             nɔ̄rī        à           dìŋ=L
gbɛ̀lɛ́L                   tì          gɛ̀pí=ɛ̄

      COM   tree=GEN  shea      COM      tree=GEN  gbele_tree        PROG
grow=NMLZ

      ɓáā=L        háákī      níLhɛ̰̄=L=rɛ̂

      in=GEN   farm        four=GEN=3PL.NHUM.POSS.ALIEN

     ‘I saw a baobab tree, a tamarind tree, a shea tree and a *gbele* tree
(the species of this tree is unknown) growing in the farm. All four of
them.’



Reference: Litvinova, Lora. 2023. A grammatical analysis and documentation
of Kugama (Wam), an Adamawa language of Nigeria. Paris: INALCO PhD thesis



Best wishes,

Lora

On Wed, Sep 6, 2023 at 8:50 AM Pun Ho Lui <luiph001 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> Haspelmath (2007) and Croft (2022) discussed a coordinating construction
> in which a numeral “summarizes” the number of referents in a list. There
> are different strategies in which the numeral behaves this way, e.g., a
> free numeral (1); a dual affix on a coordinand (2); a dual pronoun in
> apposition with the list+verb with dual marker (3). These numeral may be
> mono-syndetic or bi-syndatic.
>
>
> (1) Zaozou
>
> ŋu55-mu55 na53 phiɛ33
>
> 1-PL[EXCL] two father_and_child
>
> “we two (exclusive), my daughter and I.”  (Li, 2020)
>
> (2) Kham
>
> syar sono:h pusum-ni
>
> louse and flea-DL
>
> ‘the louse and the flea’ (Watters, 2004)
>
>
> (3)  Mapudungu
> (iñché) eymi    inchiu   i-y-u
>
>  I          you:SG we:DU eat-IND-1NONSG-DU
>
>   ‘You and I ate.’
>
> Languages with this construction I know are Zaozou, Kham, Mapudungu, Alto
> Perené*, *Bangla*, *Cantonese*, *Mandarin*, *Papuan Malay*, *Yakut*, *
>
> Inari Saami, Mongolian, Classical Tibetan, Huallaga Quechua, Wardaman,
> Khanty, Vedic Sanskrit, Mparntwe Arrernte, Daga, Mapudungu, Enets, Kham
> and Hualapai
>
> I am wondering if there are other languages sharing similar constructions.
>
> Thank you.
>
> Warmest,
> Joe Pun Ho Lui
>
>
>
>
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