Editing Grammatical number (section)

===Composed numbers===

Composed numbers are number categories built from multiple number markers combined. They are "a rare phenomenon."<ref name="Corbett2000p36">{{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=36 |isbn=0-511-01591-7 }}</ref>

====Dual and plural====

In [[Breton language|Breton]]:<ref name="Corbett2000p36"/>

*{{lang|br|lagad}} - "eye" (singular)
*{{lang|br|'''daou'''lagad}} - "two eyes" (dual)
*{{lang|br|lagad'''où'''}} - "eyes" (plural)
*{{lang|br|'''daou'''lagad'''où'''}} - "pairs of eyes" (composed, dual + plural)

Breton only has the dual for nouns that naturally come in pairs, mostly body parts and items of clothing. The composed dual and plural indicates multiple sets of two each, whereas the regular plural represents multiple items without them conceptualized as coming in pairs.<ref name="Acquaviva2008">{{cite book |last=Acquaviva |first=Paolo |year=2008 |title=Lexical Plurals: A Morphosemantic Approach |series=Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=238, 247, 251–252 |isbn=978-0-19-953421-0 }}</ref> There is at least one attestation in [[Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]], from an inscription dating to the reign of [[Merneptah]], of the exact same grammatical construction with the word "hand" (to mean multiple pairs of hands).<ref>{{cite book |last=Matić |first=Uroš |year=2019 |title=Body and Frames of War in New Kingdom Egypt: Violent Treatment of Enemies and Prisoners |series=Philippika - Altertumswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen / Contributions to the Study of Ancient World Cultures 134 |location=Wiesbaden, Germany |publisher=Harrassowitz Verlag |page=282n450 |isbn=978-3-447-19925-4 }}</ref>

A similar category can be found in some nouns of [[Classical Arabic]], where it has been called the "dual of the plural". However, its meaning is the reverse of the Breton construction. Rather than multiple sets of two each, it indicates two sets of multiple each. Thus there is {{lang|ar-latn|rumḥun}}, spear (singular); {{lang|ar-latn|rumḥani}}, two spears (dual); {{lang|ar-latn|rimāḥun}}, spears (plural); and {{lang|ar-latn|rimāḥāni}}, two groups of spears (dual of the plural).<ref name="Ojeda1992p322">{{cite book |last=Ojeda |first=Almerindo E. |editor-last1=Barker |editor-first1=Chris |editor-link1=Chris Barker (linguist) |editor-last2=Dowty |editor-first2=David |editor-link2=David Dowty |year=1992 |title=SALT II: Proceedings from the Second Conference on Semantics and Linguistic Theory; Held at the Ohio State University, May 1-3, 1992 |chapter=The Semantics of Number in Arabic |series=Working Papers in Linguistics No. 40 |location=Columbus |publisher=The Ohio State University Department of Linguistics |pages=303–326 [322–323] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED352828/page/n321/mode/2up }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Kunitzsch |first=Paul |date=1978 |title=Der Sternhimmel in den "Dichterischen Vergleichen der Andalus-Araber" |language=de |journal=Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft |volume=128 |issue=2 |pages=238–251 [245] |jstor=43381949 }}</ref> The Arabic dual of the plural more specifically implies a minimum of six items, or two groups of three each.<ref name="Ojeda1992p322"/>

====Plural and plural====

In Breton<ref name="Corbett2000p36"/> and Classical Arabic,<ref name="Ojeda1992p319">{{cite book |last=Ojeda |first=Almerindo E. |editor-last1=Barker |editor-first1=Chris |editor-link1=Chris Barker (linguist) |editor-last2=Dowty |editor-first2=David |editor-link2=David Dowty |year=1992 |title=SALT II: Proceedings from the Second Conference on Semantics and Linguistic Theory; Held at the Ohio State University, May 1-3, 1992 |chapter=The Semantics of Number in Arabic |series=Working Papers in Linguistics No. 40 |location=Columbus |publisher=The Ohio State University Department of Linguistics |pages=303–326 [319–322] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED352828/page/n315/mode/2up }}</ref><ref name="Mathieu2014">{{cite book |last=Mathieu |first=Eric |editor-last1=Aguilar-Guevara |editor-first1=Ana |editor-last2=Le Bruyn |editor-first2=Bert |editor-last3=Zwarts |editor-first3=Joost |year=2014 |title=Weak Referentiality |series=Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, vol. 219 |location=Amsterdam |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |chapter=Many a Plural |volume=219 |pages=157–182 [172, 177] |isbn=978-90-272-6938-6 |doi=10.1075/la.219.07mat }}</ref> as well as in [[Somali language|Somali]]<ref name="Lecarme2002">{{cite book |last=Lecarme |first=Jacqueline |editor-last=Boucher |editor-first=Paul |year=2002 |title=Many Morphologies |location=Somerville, MA |publisher=Cascadilla Press |chapter=Gender “Polarity”: Theoretical Aspects of Somali Nominal Morphology |pages=109–141 [110, 121–122] |chapter-url=https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/2759/1/Gender%20%27Polarity%27%20-%20Theoretical%20Aspects%20of%20Somali%20Nominal%20Morphology.pdf |access-date=2024-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403192819/https://arcadia.sba.uniroma3.it/bitstream/2307/2759/1/Gender%20%27Polarity%27%20-%20Theoretical%20Aspects%20of%20Somali%20Nominal%20Morphology.pdf |archive-date=2024-04-03 |isbn=978-1-57473-125-5 }}</ref> and [[Maasai language|Maasai]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Hieda |first=Osamu |editor-last=Hieda |editor-first=Osamu |year=2014 |title=Recent Advances in Nilotic Linguistics |series=Studies in Nilotic Linguistics, vol. 8 |url=https://tufs.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/11619 |location=Fuchu, Tokyo |publisher=Research Institute for Languages and Culture of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies |chapter=Number in Nilotic: A Hypothetical Consideration from Historical Perspective |pages=15–32 [22, 22n11] |access-date=2024-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403030423/https://tufs.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/11619/files/B156_SNL-8_Recent%20Advances%20in%20Nilotic%20Linguistics_web_1.pdf |archive-date=2024-04-03 |isbn=978-4-86337-156-9 }}</ref> some nouns may compose the plural with itself, to mean multiple different groups. This has been called the "plural of the plural", the plural plural, or the double plural.<ref name="Ojeda1992p319"/><ref name="Mathieu2014"/> An Arabic example is {{lang|ar-latn|kalb}}, dog (singular); {{lang|ar-latn|aklub}}, dogs (plural); and {{lang|ar-latn|akālib}}, groups of dogs (double plural).<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ziadeh |first=Farhat J. |date=1986 |title=Prosody and the Initial Formation of Classical Arabic |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=106 |issue=2 |pages=333–338 [336] |doi=10.2307/601598 |jstor=601598 }}</ref> The Arabic double plural implies a minimum of nine items, or three groups of three each. Some Classical Arabic nouns may even compose the plural with itself yet again, to create the "plural plural plural" or triple plural, such as {{lang|ar-latn|firqat}}, sect (singular); {{lang|ar-latn|firaq}}, sects (plural); {{lang|ar-latn|ʔafrāq}}, groups of sects (double plural); and {{lang|ar-latn|ʔafārīq}}, groups of groups of sects (triple plural). The triple plural implies a minimum of 27 items.<ref name="Ojeda1992p321">{{cite book |last=Ojeda |first=Almerindo E. |editor-last1=Barker |editor-first1=Chris |editor-link1=Chris Barker (linguist) |editor-last2=Dowty |editor-first2=David |editor-link2=David Dowty |year=1992 |title=SALT II: Proceedings from the Second Conference on Semantics and Linguistic Theory; Held at the Ohio State University, May 1-3, 1992 |chapter=The Semantics of Number in Arabic |series=Working Papers in Linguistics No. 40 |location=Columbus |publisher=The Ohio State University Department of Linguistics |pages=303–326 [321–322] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED352828/page/n315/mode/2up }}</ref> According to the 15th century linguist and polymath [[al-Suyuti|Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti]], the Arabic word for male camel, {{lang|ar-latn|jamalun}}, may be cumulatively pluralized up to six times: {{lang|ar-latn|ʔajmulun}} (plural), {{lang|ar-latn|ʔajmālun}} (double plural), {{lang|ar-latn|jāmilun}} (triple plural), {{lang|ar-latn|jimālun}} (quadruple plural), {{lang|ar-latn|jimālatun}} (quintuple plural), and {{lang|ar-latn|jimālātun}} (sextuple plural).<ref name="Schub1982">{{cite journal |last=Schub |first=Michael B. |date=1982 |title=A Note on a Sextuple Plural in Arabic and More on Plurals of Paucity and Abundance |journal=Al-'Arabiyya |volume=15 |issue=1/2 |pages=153–155 [154] |jstor=43192546}}</ref>{{efn|Since the dual was a regular feature of Classical Arabic, a dual also exists for all of these examples: {{lang|ar-latn|kalbāni}} for two dogs,<ref>{{cite book |last=Abu-Chacra |first=Faruk |year=2007 |edition=1st |title=Arabic: An Essential Grammar |series=Routledge Essential Grammars |location=London |publisher=Routledge |pages=72, 82 |doi=10.4324/9780203088814 |isbn=978-0-203-08881-4 }}</ref> {{lang|ar-latn|firqatāni}} for two sects,<ref>{{cite book |last=Marlow |first=L. |year=2016 |title=Counsel for Kings: Wisdom and Politics in Tenth-Century Iran |volume=1, The Naṣīḥat al-mulūk of Pseudo-Māwardī: Contexts and Themes |series=Edinburgh Studies in Classical Arabic Literature |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |page=85 |isbn=978-0-7486-9691-8 }}</ref> and {{lang|ar-latn|jamalāni}} for two camels.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cheerangote |first=Saidalavi |date=2018 |title=Contact-Induced Elements in Arabi-Malayalam |url=http://www.languageinindia.com/may2018/saidalaviarabimalayalamcontactinduced2.pdf |journal=Language in India |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=333–341 [335] |access-date=2024-04-10 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200724095027/http://www.languageinindia.com/may2018/saidalaviarabimalayalamcontactinduced2.pdf |archive-date=2020-07-24 }}</ref> A more modern source lists {{lang|ar-latn|jimālun}} as the regular plural of {{lang|ar-latn|jamalun}} (instead of the quadruple plural), from which is formed an additional dual of the plural, {{lang|ar-latn|jimālāni}}, meaning two herds of male camels.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ojeda |first=Almerindo E. |editor-last1=Barker |editor-first1=Chris |editor-link1=Chris Barker (linguist) |editor-last2=Dowty |editor-first2=David |editor-link2=David Dowty |year=1992 |title=SALT II: Proceedings from the Second Conference on Semantics and Linguistic Theory; Held at the Ohio State University, May 1-3, 1992 |chapter=The Semantics of Number in Arabic |series=Working Papers in Linguistics No. 40 |location=Columbus |publisher=The Ohio State University Department of Linguistics |pages=303–326 [322] |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED352828/page/n315/mode/2up }}</ref>}}