Rara #140

Legacy number: 140

 Number  140
 Phenomenon  number distinction (singular/plural) only on 2nd person pronouns, as well as on determiner demonstratives, and not on any other pronouns (including 1st) or nouns
 Found in  Malagasy (West Indonesian, Austronesian)
 Domain  morphology: inflection — categories and their domains: person, number
 Type  nonesuch
 Keywords  personal pronoun
 Source  Keenan, Edward L. & Maria Polinsky (1998). Malagasy (Austronesian). In Andrew Spencer & Arnold M. Zwicky (eds.), Handbook of Morphology. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 567-568.
 Violates  referential hierarchy for number marking

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Discussion
Notes
A more common violation of the referential hierarchy for number marking is to have a number distinction for 1st and 3rd person, but not for 2nd (cf. English): in 2nd person, plural is commonly extended to use as formal singular, eventually replacing the old singular and thus obliterating the number contrast.
Comment
Frans Plank · 21 Sep 2006
A more common violation of the referential hierarchy for number marking is to have a number distinction for 1st and 3rd person, but not for 2nd (cf. English): in 2nd person, plural is commonly extended to use as formal singular, eventually replacing the old singular and thus obliterating the number contrast.