Re: No plural morpheme

On Nov 24, 2007 5:34 AM, caeruleancentaur <caeruleancentaur@...> wrote:
> I enjoy reading fantasy lit.  Sometimes the authors use archaic
> language in the mouths of some of the characters.  I recently read one
> character saying, "It's seven mile away...."
>
> I'm trying to keep Senjecan grammar as uncluttered as possible.  I
> thought that I might not use a plural morpheme if the plurality of the
> noun was obvious as when, say, a number qualified the noun.
>
> What are your experiences with this in either a natlang or your
> conlang?  I believe that Japanese does this.
Mongolian (Khalkh) does this as well, as we've discovered in our field
methods class this semester. Mongolian does have number marking, just
not when explicitly quantified. Shoshoni only inflects for number
(sing and dual) for animates; it sounds odd (if not downright wrong)
to speakers to add number inflection to inanimates.

> Charlie
Dirk

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