LINGUIST List 5.1255

Tue 08 Nov 1994

Sum: Determiners and Number

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1. David Gil, SUM: DETS AND NUMBER

About a month ago, I posted the following query:

 I'm looking for languages whose NPs have the following three
 properties:

 (1) bare, unmarked nouns occur in argument position, and may
 be interpreted as either singular or plural (eg. Malay, Mandarin,
 Japanese, as opposed to English);

 (2) at least some determiners are unmarked for number (eg.
 English "the", "some", "John's", as opposed to "this", "these"); and,
 most interestingly,

 (3) When a bare, unmarked noun occurs in construction with a
 determiner that is unmarked for number, the resulting NP *is*
 marked for number.

 So far, I am familiar with two languages satisfying the above
 three conditions. (Both are Singaporean dialects of languages
 whose standard varieties don't satisfy these conditions.)

 SINGAPOREAN MALAY

 (1) Like in Standard Malay, bare, unmarked nouns are unmarked
 for number, eg. "kucing" (cat/cats);

 (2) Again like in Standard Malay, the determiners "itu"
 (that/the) and ini" (this) are unmarked for number, eg. "seekor
 kucing itu" (that/the one cat), "dua ekor kucing itu" (those/the
 two cats);

 (3) Unlike in Standard Malay, bare, unmarked nouns in
 construction with "itu" and ini" tend to be interpreted as
 singular, eg. "kucing itu" (that/the cat/?*cats). [Apparently,
 there is some variation here between speakers, and between
 different constructions for the same speakers.]

 SINGLISH (aka COLLOQUIAL SINGAPOREAN ENGLISH)

 (1) Unlike in Standard English, bare, unmarked nouns are
 unmarked for number, eg. "cat" (cat/cats);

 (2) Like in standard English, prenominal possessors such
 as "John's" are unmarked for number, eg. "John's one cat" (John's
 one cat), "John's two cat(s)" (John's two cats);

 (3) When bare, unmarked nouns are preceded by prenominal
 possessors, the resulting construction can only be interpreted as
 singular, eg. "John's cat" (John's cat/*cats).

 SOME QUESTIONS:

 (a) Is anybody familiar with more such examples? (References?)

 (b) Is this a Southeast Asian areal feature and/or a common
 cross-linguistic pattern?

 (c) In both of the above cases, an unmarked noun plus an
 unmarked determiner results in a singular NP. Are there any
 cases where the result is a plural NP?

 (d) Does anybody have any ideas how to analyze/explain this
 phenomenon (within any theoretical framework, or none)?

********************************************************************

This is one case where the summary is much shorter than the
query itself.

Two other languages emerged with a pattern identical to that of
Singaporean Malay: Japanese (thanks to Pamela A Downing and
Mayumi Masuko), and Korean (thanks to Jae Jung Song).

(In the meantime, further field work of my own revealed that in
Singlish, not just prenominal possessors but also the definite
article "the" exhibits a similar singularity effect: although
unmarked for number (as evidenced by "the one cat", "the two
cat(s)"), "the cat" is interpreted as singular.)

Further observations were provided by Steven Berbeco, Richard
DeArmond, Bob Fradkin, Mark A. Mandel, Edith A. Moravcsik, and
Gwyn Williams.