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Universal 548:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 548:

Original
If numeral expressions for the smallest addends take the plural of the noun when they designate numbers >1, then complex numerals with one as an addend will take the plural of the noun if ‘one’ is not a separate word.
Standardized
IF numeral expressions for the smallest addends take the plural of the noun when they designate numbers >1, THEN complex numerals with one as an addend will take the plural of the noun if ‘one’ is not a separate word.
Keywords
numeral, noun
Domain
inflection, word formation
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
56 languages mentioned in Greenberg 1978a
Source
Greenberg 1978a: 283 (#42)
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    For example English ‘two’, ‘three’. etc. take the noun in the plural. So does ‘eleven’. When ‘one’ is a separate word, the whole expression may (e.g. Bantu languages in general) or may not (e. g. English ‘twenty-one’) take the singular.

    1. May 2020

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