Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Grammatical number
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
====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>}}
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)