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

Geoff wrote:

> 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.
>

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."

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