Universal 242: inflectional expansion: Pl ⇒ Du
inflectional reduction: Du ⇒ Pl
- Original
- During inflectional expansion, if there is a plural, there is also a dual.
During inflectional reduction, if there is a dual, there is also a plural. - Standardized
- During inflectional expansion,
IF there is a plural, THEN there is also a dual.During inflectional reduction,
IF there is a dual, THEN there is also a plural. - Keywords
- number, plural, dual
- Domain
- inflection
- Type
- implication
- Status
- diachronic (see Comments)
- Quality
- absolute
- Basis
- Ancient and Modern Greek (both Greek), French, Italian, Latin (all Italic), English, “Gothic” (both Germanic), Classical Armenian (Armenian), Hebrew (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic) [see Comments]
- Source
- Smith 1761 [1983], as interpreted in Plank 1992: 43
- Counterexamples
This is actually not a developmental law, but a universal implication, holding only for (all) languages in a particular stage of their evolution. What is specified under “Basis” is not a sample in any serious sense, merely the list of languages mentioned in Smith’ s treatise; it is not necessarily the case that Smith’s generalizations are actually based on closer inspection of these languages (e.g., most of them do not bear on the present implication).