Re: Number

On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, dirk elzinga wrote:

> On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY wrote:
> > according to rules that are not completely clear at this point. There is
> > some evidence suggesting that being distributed across the objects is
> > relevant. For example, if you beat two dogs, the verb does not
> > reduplicate, but if you beat a dog and a cat, the verb does reduplicate.
> > (Sorry for the violent examples -- I didn't elicit them.) One the other
> > hand, there are instances where you get reduplication with a single type
> > of noun. This is an area that needs more work, but it does support your
> > claim somewhat. (BTW, 'go' does reduplicate for the subject, so your
> > example sentences might be very relevant.)
>
> Did you beat both dogs at the same time? In that case, there was
> one beating event, hence a singular. I can imagine that this
> reading is easier to get when you're talking about two dogs than
> when you're talking about a dog and a cat.
This is what I plan to find out when I get around to working on this
topic. They guy who collected the data in this area was a phonologist who
had to write a syntax paper. His data is full of holes, his analysis made
very little sense, but he got tons of the reduplicated forms he loves so
much.

Marcus