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Article published In: Lexical plurals and beyond
Edited by Peter Lauwers and Marie Lammert
[Lingvisticæ Investigationes 39:2] 2016
► pp. 234–252

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Lexical plurals in Telugu

Mass nouns in disguise

 | Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main |
Published online: 30 March 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/li.39.2.02smi
In this paper I provide a description and analysis of a small class of plural mass nouns in Telugu (Dravidian), as well as an overview of the major properties of the mass/count distinction in the language. The plural mass nouns show the semantic behaviour of mass nouns in Telugu, however, they show the morphosyntactic behaviour of count nouns. I provide an analysis whereby the plurality is inherent to the roots, and it is this inherent plurality interacting with other properties of the morphosyntax of Telugu that makes these nouns appear to be count on the surface, though in reality they are mass nouns.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • 1.The mass/count distinction in Telugu
    • 1.1Mass versus count: A general overview
    • 1.2The morphosyntax of the mass/count distinction in Telugu
    • 1.3The semantic distinctions between mass nouns and count nouns in Telugu
  • 2.Milk and water: Plural mass nouns in Telugu
    • 2.1Milk and Water
    • 2.2Plural mass nouns: A cross-linguistic picture
  • 3.Issues that Telugu raises for theories of the mass/count distinction
  • 4.A solution
    • 4.1 Končam and konni are allomorphs
    • 4.2The Inner Structure of niiLLu and paalu
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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