Re: THEORY: Kinds of Plurals, and Methods of Indicating Them

On Jun 26, 2005, at 12:04 PM, Shaul Vardi wrote:
> Geoff wrote:
>> 1) a singular form of "hair" would mean that John pulled out
>> a specific hair already referred to.
>> 2) a plural form of "hair" would mean that John pulled out a
>> small number of hairs, or perhaps a handful of his hair.
>> 3) a collective form of "hair" would mean that John pulled
>> out ALL of his hair.
>> Does this help at all?
>> I haven't a clue what, if any, natlangs do this sort of thing, though.
> Maybe you were an Arabic speaker in a previous incarnation.  This is
> exactly how it works in Arabic.  Take the word step:
> 1) Singular form (IIRC this is sometimes called the "instance" form,
> i.e. it refers to one instance of the noun) - darajah.
> 2) Plural form - darajat.  Eg "there are four steps from our house to
> the garden."
> 3) Collective form - daraj.  Eg "he cleaned the steps."
Aw ohwell, i thought i was being innovative planning on using this for
my Semiticonlang!  I thought that in natlangs, broken plurals and
suffix plurals were mutually exclusive, not occuring in one noun.
AÑADEW strikes again, i guess...


-Stephen (Steg)
  'the creator thought that one language would be enough,
   but Raven thought differently, and made many.'
      ~ the bella coola, according to hyde
        (thanks hanuman! ;) )