Re: Re : Using numberless substantives

Tem Sun, 20 Jun 1999 14:47:14 EDT, "From
Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html" <Lassailly@...>
skribis:

>there are natlangs having no specific plural or default singular tag and=
=20
>making it clear that you speak of only one or else of a definite number =
of=20
>items with classificators. many conlangs do so :
>miki : house(s)
>mumiki : house as a dwelling archetype
>mikimiki : houses
>mimiki : one house
>mamiki : town(s)
>mimamiki : one town
and "towns" would be mamikimamiki? God, telephone companies would
really make it if people spoke that language...

>etc.
Yeah, well, this is more or less trivial. What I wanted to adress was
the usage of numberless nouns in speech. For example, in a typical
sentence like "that house by the river...", what's the usual way to
say that noun (sg.) it in those langs, miki? mimiki?

If "miki", then I see certain undesirable vagueness in the utterance,
as the listener usually won't know whether it's one or several.
If "mimiki" I say Ok, but I believe it's a burden to have to add one
syllable to the noun for such a frequent form as singular one.



Saludos,
Marcos