Universal #513

Legacy number: 513

 Number  511
 Original  No language has a trial number unless it has a dual. No language has a dual unless it has a plural.
 Standardized  IF there is a trial, THEN there is also a dual.
IF there is a dual, THEN there is also a plural.

OR, BY CONTRAPOSITION:
IF there is no dual, THEN there is no trial.
IF there is no plural, THEN there is no dual.
 Formula  Tr ⇒ Du; ¬Du ⇒ ¬Tr;
Du ⇒ Pl; ¬Pl => ¬Du
 Keywords  number, trial, dual, plural
 Domain  inflection
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  30 languages of Greenberg 1963 sample
 Source  Greenberg 1963: 94, #34

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Northeastern Maidu (Maiduan) (Dixon 1911: 709) is not a counterexample in the strictest sense since indeed there are markers for both plural and dual (in nouns). Yet the dual marker is used more frequently than the plural one, albeit on a very low level: the use of either is rare anyway (Plank 1989: 318).
Notes
See ##276, 716, and discussion in Plank 1989: 317-318, 1994b: 237.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
See <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=276"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=716"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, and discussion in Plank 1989: 317-318, Plank 1994b: 237.