Skip to content

Universal 1367:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1367:

Original
If grammatical number (singular, dual, paucal, plural) is marked at all on classifier constructions, it is usually marked on or by classifier – not on the noun, which has the characteristic of a mass, collective, or uncountable noun.
Standardized
If grammatical number (singular, dual, paucal, plural) is marked at all on classifier constructions, it is usually marked on or by the classifier, not on the noun, which has the characteristic of a mass, collective, or uncountable noun.
Keywords
classifier, number, noun
Domain
inflection
Type
no genuine implication; rather: provided that
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
sample of about 100 languages in Greenberg 1972
Source
inferred from Greenberg 1972 by Allan 1977: 294
Counterexamples
Allan 1977: in Yucatec Mayan , the plural is optionally marked on the noun in classifier constructions. In Algonquian, the plural is obligatorily marked on the noun where the classifier counts discrete objects, but is absent where translation into English is a partitive expression.

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP
    1. May 2020

Comments are closed.