Re: Nullar (Was: Re: Noun Number)

On Tue, 6 Nov 2001, Irina Rempt-Drijfhout wrote:

> On Tuesday 06 November 2001 03:50, Padraic Brown wrote:
>
> > Makes sense. "Many" is simply the countless things that are there;
> > "zero" is the countless things that aren't there; and "one" is the
> > one thing that is here.
>
> Now I see why many languages (Ilaini for one) insists plural verb
> forms when talking about "nothing" or "nobody".
Right. If it's not there, you don't know how many of them there
aren't.

Kind of like the use of the subjunctive (irrealis) when asking
questions - you don't know if it's there, so you can't use the
mood of known facts (indicative).

P.

>    Irina