Plural markers tend to originate on personal nouns and to spread in both directions, to inanimate nouns, on the one hand, and via the demonstrative to the 2nd and 1st person in that order.
Standardized
There can be no spread of plural marking to personal pronouns unless there is such plural marking on demonstrative pronouns; there can be no spread of plural marking to demonstrative pronouns unless there is such plural marking on (at least personal) nouns; there can be no spread of plural marking to 1st person personal pronouns unless there is such plural marking on 2nd person personal pronouns; there can be no spread of plural marking to inanimate nouns unless there is such plural marking on personal nouns.
Keywords
plural, noun, animacy, demonstrative, personal pronoun, 1st person, 2nd person
1. Synchronically, this means that plural markers can only be distributed as follows:NOUNS DEM PRO PERS PROpersonal inanimate 2nd 1st- – – – -+ – – – -+ + – – -+ – + – -+ – + + -+ – + + ++ + + + +It is possible to state implicational constraints on possible synchronic distributions:IF plural on personal pronouns, THEN on demonstrative pronouns; IF plural on demonstrative pronouns, THEN on (at least personal) nouns;IF plural on 1st person personal pronoun, THEN on 2nd person personal pronoun;IF plural on inanimate nouns, THEN on personal nouns.But Greenberg’s point is that these synchronic distributions automatically follow from gradual diachronic extensions, as stated above.To see what are synchronically possible distributions one would also have to know whether the loss of plural markers also proceeds in a regular stepwise fashion; i.e. loss from inanimate nouns before personal nouns, from 1st person pronouns before 2nd person pronouns, from personal before demonstrative pronouns, from demonstrative pronouns before (personal) nouns. 2. See also ##1950, 1944, 1409.3. There are other (and one might say predominant) views on diachronic extensions of plural or also other number distinctions, in particular that which sees them as spreading from 1st to 2nd to 3rd person personal pronouns (with 3rd person on a par with demonstrative), and from there to nouns, down the animacy hierarchy.
1. Synchronically, this means that plural markers can only be distributed as follows:NOUNS DEM PRO PERS PROpersonal inanimate 2nd 1st- – – – -+ – – – -+ + – – -+ – + – -+ – + + -+ – + + ++ + + + +It is possible to state implicational constraints on possible synchronic distributions:IF plural on personal pronouns, THEN on demonstrative pronouns; IF plural on demonstrative pronouns, THEN on (at least personal) nouns;IF plural on 1st person personal pronoun, THEN on 2nd person personal pronoun;IF plural on inanimate nouns, THEN on personal nouns.But Greenberg’s point is that these synchronic distributions automatically follow from gradual diachronic extensions, as stated above.To see what are synchronically possible distributions one would also have to know whether the loss of plural markers also proceeds in a regular stepwise fashion; i.e. loss from inanimate nouns before personal nouns, from 1st person pronouns before 2nd person pronouns, from personal before demonstrative pronouns, from demonstrative pronouns before (personal) nouns. 2. See also ##1950, 1944, 1409.3. There are other (and one might say predominant) views on diachronic extensions of plural or also other number distinctions, in particular that which sees them as spreading from 1st to 2nd to 3rd person personal pronouns (with 3rd person on a par with demonstrative), and from there to nouns, down the animacy hierarchy.