Subject: number invariance : summary

several weeks ago i posted a call for help identifying languages in which nouns may show the same form of number with all enumerating numerals . examples from english , which does not in general allow such number invariance , include the noun ' head ' in ' one head of cattle ' , ' two head of cattle ' , etc . and , more systematically , nouns compounded with numerals ( cf . two-car garage , three-body problem , four-week ins - titute , five-page summary , six-foot high ) . a summary of the responses follows . please feel free to add to this list ( or to take issue with my summaries ) . thanks to patrick farrell , tim pulju and all the sources mentioned below . thanks also to the res - pondents who provided the following general discussion of number invar - iance and english compounds : churma , d . ( 1983 ) " jets fans , raider rooters , and the interaction of morphosyntactic processes " . cls 19 ( paravolume ) churma , d . ( 1987 ) " explaining level ordering , and how not to parse a word " . bls 13 . rijkhoff , j . 1991 . " nominal aspect " . journal of semantics 8 - 4 , 291-309 . rijkhoff , j . 1992 . the noun phrase : a typological study of its form and structure . doctoral dissertation , university of amsterdam . [ esp . ch . 3 . 1 . 1 . pp . 74-103 ] rijkhoff , j . forthcoming ? . " ` number ' disagreement " . proceedings of the xvth international congress of linguists , 9-14 august 1992 , quebec , canada . 1 ) australian : many australian languages show number invariance . although they generally have a plural morpheme that may be affixed to nouns , this is not used unless required by pragmatic considera - tions . thus , in pitjantjatjara ( western desert ) , ngampu is ' egg ' , and we have ngampu marnkurpa ' three eggs ' . references on pitjantja - tjara : goddard , cliff . 1993 . a learner 's guide to pitjantjatjara / yankunytjatjara . alice springs : institute for aboriginal development trudinger ; ronald m . 1943 . grammar of the pitjantjatjara dialect , central australia . oceania xiii : 3 , 205-223 source : rob pensalfini ( rjpensal @ mit . edu ) 2 ) basque : nouns in indefinite nps behave like possibly all turkic languages in using an invariant form of the noun with all numerals . examples : gizon bat ` one man ' , bi gizon ` two men ' ( bizkaian gizon bi ) , hiru gizon ` three men ' . noun plurality may be marked , however , in nps containing definite determiners . one such determiner is the " ordinary " or " definite " article - a , which is a suffix . examples : gizon bata ` the one man ' ( rare ) , bi gizonak ` the two men ' , ` both men ' ( bizkaian gizon biak ) , hiru gizonak ` the three men ' , ` all three men ' . references : la - fitte , pierre ( 1944 ) , grammaire basque , pp . 76-78 . saltarelli , mario ( 1988 ) basque , p . 172 . source : larry trask ( larryt @ cogs . susx . ac . uk ) 3 ) celtic : in welsh ( an perhaps in all celtic languages ) , all cardinal numbers obligatorily take thesingular of the follow - ing noun ( cf . ci 'd og ' , cwn 'd ogs ' : un ci , dau gi , tri chi , pedwar ci , pum ci , chwe chi , saith ci , wyth ci , naw ci , deg ci . . . ( ' one dog , two dogs . . . ten dogs ' ) . there is , however , an alternative partitive construction , especially favoured with higher numbers , and here you get the plural : pump o gwn , chwech o gwn . . . ( lit . ' five of dogs , six of dogs ' ) . any welsh grammar book will give you a reliable description . references : ball , m . ( ed ) ' the celtic languages ' routledge , 1993 . sources : nigel love ( nlove @ beattie . uct . ac . za ) martin j . ball ( mj . ball @ ulst . ac . uk ) 4 ) chaha : in chaha there is no plural morpheme ( cf . at bet ' one house ' , xwet bet ' two houses ' ) , except in some lexically marked plurals on a very small number of nouns ( cf . at arc ' one boy ' , xwet dengya ' two boys ' ) . source : banksira degif petros ( d217704 @ er . uqam . ca ) 5 ) chinese : chinese does just what you wrote : yi tou niu ' one tou cow ' , where tou is a classifier for domestic animals ( and also a noun in its own right meaning head ) . source : paul woods ( woodspr @ osuunx . ucc . okstate . edu ) 6 ) choctaw : choctaw nouns are never marked for number under any cir - cumstances . number marking is diffuse and lexical , meaning there are a variety of non-parallel strategies for indicating the number value of particular nouns . source : marcia haag ( haag @ monk . nhn . uoknor . edu ) 7 ) dutch : dutch words for time intervals like kwartier ' quarter ' , and uur ' hour ' are always singular . maand ' month ' and jaar ' year ' usually remain singular . seconde , minuut , dag 'd ay ' , nacht ' night ' , week , and eeuw ' century ' take plural morphology when there is two or more of them . meter , centimeter , kilometer , hectoliter , kilo - ( gram ) and frank , always remain singular too . sources : bert peeters ( peeters @ postoffice . utas . edu . au ) patricia haegeman ( fte . haegeman . p @ alpha . ufsia . ac . be ) 8 ) english creole of new guinea ( = neomelanesian ? ) : here we have examples like wan pela man ' one man ' ( lit . ' one fellow man ' ) , tu pela man ' two men ' ( lit . two fellow man ) . similar facts may be found in ( some ) of the underlying local langua - ges . sources : brian drayton ( brian _ drayton @ terc . edu ) from personal communication with anthony arlotto , e . wayles browne ( ewb2 @ cornell . edu ) . 9 ) finno - ugric : hungarian has a plural morpheme - k . yet , in spite of plurals like toll ( a ) k ' pencils ' , one says egy toll ' one pencil , ket toll ' two pencil ' , harom toll ' three pencil ' . . . , sok toll ' many pen - cil ' . further examples : kapu ' gate ' has a plural kapuk ' gates ' . yet we have hat kapu 's ix gates ' . finnish works the same way . sources : roman agnes ( aromi @ eratos . erin . utoronto . ca ) edith a moravcsik ( edith @ csd . uwm . edu ) 10 ) georgian : generally , nouns following a cardinal number remain in the singular . measure words are not used . source : john peterson ( gor05 @ rz . uni-kiel . d400 . de ) 11 ) german : gerhard helbig & joachim buscha , deutsche grammatik says on p . 528 that some measure nouns ( mostly feminines ) dis - tinguish between singular and plural in phrases like eine flas - che sekt " a bottle of sparkling wine " - zwei flaschen sekt . a list follows : die buchse , die dose , die kiste , der krug , die schussel , der tag , die tasse , die woche . . . other measure nouns ( mostly neuter ) keep the singular : ein stuck zucker - drei stuck zucker , ein kasten bier - drei kasten ( or drei ka " sten [ the pl ] ) bier . likewise : das blatt , das glas , das kilo , die mark , das meter , das paar , das pfund , der sack . . . ( the . . . is in the original ) . soruce : e . wayles brown ( ewb2 @ cornell . edu ) 12 ) indic : in hindi , a measure of time , distance , mass , etc . is left in the singular with cardinal numbers numbers . otherwise , common nouns appear in the plural after a number . measure words are not used . as with hindi , a measure of time , distance , mass , etc . is left in the singular in nepali . in addition , common nouns here are generally left in the singular and one of two measure words is used : janaa for humans , vataa for animals and things . this un - doubtedly is due to tibeto - burman influence . source : john peterson ( gor05 @ rz . uni-kiel . d400 . de ) 13 ) indonesian ( bahasa indonesia ) : although one may pluralise a noun by reduplication , this is a non-specific form of the plur - al ( cf . kucing ' cat ' , kucing-kucing ' cats ' ) . if one wanted to say five cats , it would simply be : lima ekor kucing ' five classifier cat ' . i am pretty sure that ' lima ekor kucing-kucing ' would get a star , but i ' ll give it a provisional question mark . reference : mac - donald , r . ross . 1976 indonesian reference grammar . washington , dc : georgetown university press . source : rob pensalfini ( rjpensal @ mit . edu ) 14 ) japanese : has no inflectional morphology for nouns , and thus ex - hibits number invariance completely . source : steve seegmiller ( seegmiller @ apollo . montclair . edu ) 15 ) kiribati ( = gilbertese ) : the unmarked form bentira ' pencil ' is used for example in a . ai bentira ' four pencils ' ( lit . ' four . long unit pencil ' ) and a . botaki bentira ' four groups of pencils ' ( lit . ' four . group pencil ' ) . source : martin silverman ( mgs @ unixg . ubc . ca ) 16 ) modern persian : in an afghan variety of persian one can say yak bacha ` one brother ' , do bacha ` two brothers ' , se bacha ` three broth - ers ' , char bacha ` four brothers ' , etc . references : any grammar of modern persian . also carleton hodge has numerous publications descri - bing aspects of persian structure . source : charles scott ( cscott @ macc . wisc . edu ) 17 ) newari : this tibeto - burman functions like nepali ( see indic above ) in this respect . the main difference is that newari almost always has a measure word after a cardinal number . generally , only nouns denoting living beings have a plural form . reference : hans joergensen , a grammar of the classical newari . copenhagen : ejnar munksgaard , 1941 . ( det kgl . danske videnskabernes selskab , hist . - filol . meddelelser , xxvii , 3 . ) source : john peterson ( gor05 @ rz . uni-kiel . d400 . de ) 18 ) niger - congo : for bambara , c . bailleul ( cours pratique de bambara , iii : types de phrases . imprimerie de la savane . bobo - dioulasso , 1977 ) only mentions cn num , while c . bird et al . ( an ka bamanan kalan : beginning bambara . iulc , 1977 ) say an addition - al possibility is cn num pl - def ( p . 43 ) . dogon seems to have just cn num ( cf . kervran , m . & a . prost les parler dogons i . donno so . documents linguistiques 16 , universite de dakar , 1969 ) . source : chris culy ( cculy @ vaxa . weeg . uiowa . edu ) 19 ) semitic : semitic often makes " no statement as to number " . nouns have regular plurals , but in counting you use the plural form only up to 10 and then revert to the singular . in hebrew this is most normal with time words , which happen also to be a small group of words that has a dual , as well . so for " yom " ( day ) you count " yom exad " , yomayim ( the dual ) , and from 3 to 10 it 's " shlosha yamim . . . asara yamim . " then you usually switch back to " axad-asar yom " ( 11 ) , etc . standard arabic counting is far messier with cases interfering , too , though all modern spoken arabics are more like hebrew . ( they do n't have a syntax that would allow complression into " a three-day conference " type of phrase . ) source : bob fradkin ( raf100f @ oduvm . cc . odu . edu ) 20 ) siouan : siouan languages mark number in the verb , not the noun . noun , so there being no plural morphology for nouns , they are natur - ally invariant with numerals ( numerals are a sort of verb , actually some of the languages can mark number in nps by choosing among var - ious forms of the definite article , which marks positional / configur - ational gender . collections of things have a different configura - tion from single items , so a different article . source : john e . koontz ( koontz @ alpha . bldr . nist . gov ) 21 ) turkish : turkish and perhaps all turkic languages have a plur - al inflection - ler / - lar which is usually omitted if a numeral marks the np as plural ( unless definiteness is expressed ) . examples : adam ` man ' , adamlar ` men ' , ` the men ' , bir adam ` one man ' , iki adam ` two men ' , iki adamlar ` the two men ' , ` both men ' . references : lewis , tur - kish grammar , clarendon press , pp . 25-26 , or underhill , turkish gram - mar , mit press . sources : edith a moravcsik ( edith @ csd . uwm . edu ) steve seegmiller ( seegmiller @ apollo . montclair . edu ) larry trask ( larryt @ cogs . susx . ac . uk ) e . wayles browne ( ewb2 @ cornell . edu )
