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

One of my conlangs, Noygwexaal, has a regular plural and a collective
plural.  The way I use those terms (I have no idea whether this is correct
for any other langs), a regular plural would be used for things that are
plural, but of a finite countable number.  The collective plural is used
for things that are an uncountable number, and also to imply "all of them".

eg. in the sentence "John pulled out his hair",

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.

Geoff

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