Re: Greenberg's Word Order Universals

Marcus Smith wrote:
>
> Here are Greenberg's Word Order Universals from his book Universals of
> Language.
<snip>

Thank you very much! I wasn't the one who asked for this, but I was
going to ask for it today.

I don't understand number 35 though: "There is no language in which the
plural does not have some nonzero allomorphs, whereas there are
languages in which the singual is expressed only by zero. The dual and
the trial are almost never expressed by zero."

My hunch is to assume it means that the unmarked form of a noun is never
the plural, but beyond that my comprehension falls apart.

If someone could explain it, it'd be swell.

--
Robert