Editing Grammatical number (section)

===Greatest plural===

Greatest plural is a number larger than and beyond greater plural. It has also been called the "even greater plural". For example, in [[Warekena language|Warekena]]:<ref>{{cite book |last=Corbett |first=Greville G. |author-link=Greville G Corbett |year=2004 |orig-year=2000 |title=Number |series=Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=37–38 |isbn=0-511-01591-7 }}</ref><ref name="Harbour2014p202">{{cite journal |last=Harbour |first=Daniel |date=2014 |title=Paucity, Abundance, and the Theory of Number |url=https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/185-229.pdf |journal=Linguistic Society of America |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=185–229 [202] |doi=10.1353/lan.2014.0003 |s2cid=120276362 |access-date=2024-01-04 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160705191935/https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/185-229.pdf |archive-date=2016-07-05 }}</ref><ref name="Aikhenvald2015">{{cite book |last=Aikhenvald |first=Alexandra Y. |author-link=Alexandra Aikhenvald |year=2015 |title=The Art of Grammar: A Practical Guide |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=112–113 |isbn=978-0-19-968321-5 }}</ref>

*{{lang|gae|ʧinu}} - "dog" (singular)
*{{lang|gae|ʧinu'''ne'''}} - "dogs" (plural)
*{{lang|gae|ʧinu'''nawi'''}} - "very many dogs" (greater plural)
*{{lang|gae|ʧinu'''nenawi'''}} - "very many dogs indeed, so many one cannot count them" (greatest plural)

A similar system is found in [[Banyun language|Banyun]], where the greater plural represents unlimitedness, and the greatest plural represents "a higher degree of unlimitedness".<ref name="Harbour2014p202"/>

Linguist Daniel Harbour has represented the paucal, greater paucal, plural, greater plural, and greatest plural as collectively definable by "cuts" that divide the range of possible numbers into different sections. One low cut defines paucal and plural, and one high cut defines plural and greater plural. Two low cuts define paucal, greater paucal, and plural; one low cut and one high cut define paucal, plural, and greater plural; and two high cuts define plural, greater plural, and greatest plural.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Harbour |first=Daniel |date=2014 |title=Paucity, Abundance, and the Theory of Number |url=https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/185-229.pdf |journal=Linguistic Society of America |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=185–229 [186, 196–202] |doi=10.1353/lan.2014.0003 |s2cid=120276362 |access-date=2024-01-04 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160705191935/https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/185-229.pdf |archive-date=2016-07-05 }}</ref> There does not appear to be any language with three such cuts, and so no language with three paucal categories and an "even greater paucal".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Harbour |first=Daniel |date=2014 |title=Paucity, Abundance, and the Theory of Number |url=https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/185-229.pdf |journal=Linguistic Society of America |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=185–229 [205] |doi=10.1353/lan.2014.0003 |s2cid=120276362 |access-date=2024-01-04 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160705191935/https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/185-229.pdf |archive-date=2016-07-05 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Harbour |first=Daniel |editor-last1=Matushansky |editor-first1=Ora |editor-last2=Marantz |editor-first2=Alec |editor-link2=Alec Marantz |year=2013 |title=Distributed Morphology Today: Morphemes for Morris Halle |location=Cambridge, MA |publisher=MIT Press |chapter="Not Plus" Isn't "Not There": Bivalence in Person, Number, and Gender |page=135–150 [149n3] |isbn=978-0-262-01967-5 }}</ref>

Because they are inexactly defined, the existence of multiple plural categories may blur the line between paucal and plural.<ref name="Corbett2000p32">{{cite book |last=Corbett |first=Greville G. |author-link=Greville G Corbett |year=2004 |orig-year=2000 |title=Number |series=Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=32 |isbn=0-511-01591-7 }}</ref><ref name="Harbour2014p201">{{cite journal |last=Harbour |first=Daniel |date=2014 |title=Paucity, Abundance, and the Theory of Number |url=https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/185-229.pdf |journal=Linguistic Society of America |volume=90 |issue=1 |pages=185–229 [201, 201n13, 214] |doi=10.1353/lan.2014.0003 |s2cid=120276362 |access-date=2024-01-04 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160705191935/https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/185-229.pdf |archive-date=2016-07-05 }}</ref> For example, Mele-Fila is said to have a paucal, plural, and greater plural. However, the transition between plural and greater plural occurs around 15 to 20. This puts the Mele-Fila "plural" in range of some larger "paucals" described in other languages. Thus the distinction is muddied between a system of paucal, plural, greater plural, and a system of paucal, greater paucal, plural.<ref name="Harbour2014p201"/> Other examples can be found in the related languages of [[Gumuz language|Northern Gumuz]] and [[Daatsʼiin language|Daatsʼiin]]. Northern Gumuz is said to mark the plural and greater plural on verbs,<ref>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |last=Ahland |first=Colleen Anne |year=2012 |title=A Grammar of Northern and Southern Gumuz |url=https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/12559/Ahland_oregon_0171A_10546.pdf |pages=211, 213–216 |publisher=University of Oregon |access-date=2024-03-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504225327/https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/12559/Ahland_oregon_0171A_10546.pdf |archive-date=2022-05-04 }}</ref> and Daatsʼiin is said to mark "three degrees of plurality" (plural, greater plural, and greatest plural) on verbs.<ref name="Ahland2016">{{cite book |last=Ahland |first=Colleen |editor-last1=Payne |editor-first1=Doris L. |editor-link1=Doris L. Payne |editor-last2=Pacchiarotti |editor-first2=Sara |editor-last3=Bosire |editor-first3=Mokaya |year=2016 |title=Diversity in African Languages: Selected Papers from the 46th Annual Conference on African Linguistics |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/199433458.pdf#page=427 |series=Contemporary African Linguistics 1 |location=Berlin |publisher=Language Science Press |chapter=Daatsʼíin, A Newly Identified Undocumented Language of Western Ethiopia: A Preliminary Examination |pages=417–449 [427–428]|access-date=2024-03-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240307161804/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/199433458.pdf#page=427 |archive-date=2024-03-07 |isbn=978-3-946234-70-8 |doi=10.17169/langsci.b121.493 }}</ref> In both languages though, the "plural" is often actually a paucal, understood to mean about two to four. However, in neither language is this always the case. The Northern Gumuz paucal/plural may sometimes refer to "much greater than four".<ref>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |last=Ahland |first=Colleen Anne |year=2012 |title=A Grammar of Northern and Southern Gumuz |url=https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/12559/Ahland_oregon_0171A_10546.pdf |pages=215 |publisher=University of Oregon |access-date=2024-03-07 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504225327/https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1794/12559/Ahland_oregon_0171A_10546.pdf |archive-date=2022-05-04 }}</ref>