Re: Adopting a plural
| From: | Muke Tever <hotblack@...> |
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| Date: | Tuesday, October 5, 2004, 4:48 |
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On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 22:44:27 -0400, Jeffrey Henning <jeffrey@...> wrote:
> So one of my conlangs did not historically mark number. Based on contact
> with an "imperial" language, speakers have borrowed that language's plural
> affix and sporadically apply it. Which is more likely...?
> a) It means 2+, just like its source language
> b) It means 2+ and that's emphatic (of some importance in the discourse)
> c) It means "a great many"
d) It means 2+, and is used on words that look like they come from the
other language (virii; octopi)
e) It means "a set, group, or collection of X" (datum / data)
e2) It means "X collectively" (Pleiades, Hecatonchires)
f) It means nothing at all ("bacteria", for some people)
Out of yours I'd waffle between a and b though.
*Muke!
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