Cover not available

In:Number – Constructions and Semantics: Case studies from Africa, Amazonia, India and Oceania
Edited by Anne Storch and Gerrit J. Dimmendaal
[Studies in Language Companion Series 151] 2014
► pp. 57–76

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 3. Pluractionality and the distribution of number marking across categories

Published online: 19 March 2014
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.151.03dim
The crucial role of constructions in grammar has been argued for, in particular with respect to idioms, by Fillmore, Kay and O’Connor (1988). But constructions, varying in size and complexity, have been claimed to constitute a central property of language structure in general, in studies such as Goldberg (1995, 2006) and Croft (2001). The present contribution takes pluractionality marking on verbs as a basis on which to provide further evidence for this position. Pluractional constructions prototypically express repetition of some action or event. In the case of intransitive predications, the subject tends to be affected by this, whereas in transitive constructions, pluractionality tends to affect the object. As argued below (Section 2), a construction-level approach towards number marking across categories helps to explain how transnumeral (general number) meaning emerges in Nilo-Saharan and Afroasiatic languages. The present study also provides evidence (in Section 3) for a historical reinterpretation of plural event marking as plural argument marking in one Nilotic (Nilo-Saharan) language, Maasai. As argued in the final Section (4), pluractionality marking as “non-canonical” number marking is common in a range of languages belonging to different language families in Africa and elsewhere, and consequently deserves its proper place in a typology of number marking.
References (40)
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2012. The Languages of Amazonia . Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Alamin, Suzan. 2012. The Nominal and Verbal Morphology of Tima . Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bergs, Alexander & Diewald, Gabriele (eds). 2008. Constructions and Language Change . Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(eds). 2009. Contexts and Constructions [Constructional Approaches to Language 9]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boyeldieu, Pascal. 1982. Quelques questions portantsur la classification du laal (Tchad). In The Chad Languages in the Hamitosemitic-Nigritic Border Area , Hermann Jungraithmayr (ed.), 80–93. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville. 2000. Number . Cambridge: CUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Corbett, Greville, & Hayward, Richard J. 1987. Gender and number in Bayso. Lingua 73: 1–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2001. Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic Theory in Typological Perspective . Oxford: OUP. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. 1983. The Turkana Language . Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1991. The geometry of verb paradigms in Teso-Turkana. In Paradigms: The Economy of Inflection , Frans Plank (ed.), 275–306. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2000. Number marking and noun categorization in Nilo-Saharan languages. Anthropological Linguistics 42: 214–261.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Africa’s verb-final languages. In Heine & Nurse (eds), 272–308.
. 2010. Differential object marking in Nilo-Saharan. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 31: 13–46. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. To appear. Derivation in Nilo-Saharan. In Handbook of Derivation , Rochel Lieber & Pavol Štekauer (eds). Oxford: OUP.
Dixon, Robert M. W. 2012. Basic Linguistic Theory, Vol. 3: Further Grammatical Topics . Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J., Kay, Paul & O’Connor, Margaret C. 1988. Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions: The case of let alone. Language 64: 501–538.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure . Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language . Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Güldemann, Tom. 2008. The Macro-Sudan belt: Towards identifying a linguistic area in northern sub-Saharan Africa. In Heine & Nurse (eds), 151–185.
Güldemann, Tom & Elderkin, Edward D. 2010. On external genealogical relationships of the Khoe family. In Khoisan Languages and Linguistics: Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium , Matthias Brenzinger & Christa König (eds), 15–52. Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Nurse, Derek (eds). 2008. A Linguistic Geography of Africa . Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kießling, Roland, Mous, Maarten & Nurse, Derek. 2008. The Tanzanian Rift Valley area. In A Linguistic Geography of Africa , Bernd Heine & Derek Nurse (eds), 186–227. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Köhler, Oswin. 1948. Die nilotischen Sprachen: Darstellung ihres Lautsystems, nebst einer einleitung über die Gesichte ihrer Erforshcung, ihre Verbreitung und Gliederung. PhD dissertation, Berlin.
König, Christa. 1993. Aspekt im Maa . Cologne: Institut für Afrikanistik.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. !Xun. In Coding Participant Marking. Construction Types in Twelve African Languages [Studies in Language Companion Series 110], Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (ed.), 23–53. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kutsch Lojenga, Constance. 1994. Ngiti. A Central-Sudanic language of Zaire . Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Michaelis, Laura. 2005. Entity and event coercion in a symbolic theory of syntax. In Construction Grammars: Cognitive Grounding and Theoretical Extensions [Constructional Approaches to Language 3], Jan-Ola Östman & Mirjam Fried (eds), 45–87. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mous, Maarten. Cushitic. In The Afroasiatic languages , Zygmunt Frajzyngier & Erin Shay (eds), 342–422. Cambridge: CUP.
Newman, Paul. 1990. Nominal and Verbal Plurality in Chadic . Dordrecht: Foris.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Payne, Doris L. & Kotikash, Leonard Ole. 2008. Maa (Maasai) Dictionary . <[URL]>
Reh, Mechthild. 1991. Frequentative derivation in Anywa: Present-day reflexes of a Proto-Nilotic suffix. Afrika und Übersee 74: 223–248.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rottland, Franz. 1982. Die südnilotischen Sprachen. Beschreibung, Vergleichung und Rekonstruktion . Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Spagnolo, Lorenzo M. 1933. Bari Grammar . Verona: Missioni Africane.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steeman, Sander. 2012. A Grammar of Sandawe: A Khoisan Language of Tanzania . Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tomasello, Michael. 2003. Constructing a Language: A Usage-based Theory of Language Acquisition . Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tucker, Archibald N. & Mpaayei, J. Tompo ole. 1955. A Maasai Grammar with Vocabulary . London: Longmans, Green and Co.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vossen, Rainer. 1982. The Eastern Nilotes: Linguistic and Historical Reconstructions . Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weiss, Doris. 2009. Phonologie et morphosyntaxe du maba. Thèse de doctorat, Université Lumière Lyon 2.
Westermann, Dietrich. 1911. Die Sudansprachen: Eine sprachvergleichende Studie . Hamburg: Friedrichsen.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, Anna. 1985. Oats and wheat: The fallacy of arbitrariness. In Iconicity in Syntax [Typological Studies in Language 6], John Haiman (ed.), 311–342. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (8)

Cited by eight other publications

Friederike Lüpke
2024. The Oxford Guide to the Atlantic Languages of West Africa, DOI logo
Jakobi, Angelika, Ali Ibrahim & Gumma Ibrahim Gulfan
2020. Verbal Number and Grammatical Relations in Tagle. Faits de Langues 51:1 ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
H. Ekkehard Wolff
2019. The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics, DOI logo
Jacques Coly, Jules & Anne Storch
2017. Semantics of number marking in Maaka. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 70:1 ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
Jakobi, Angelika
2017. Verbal number and transitivity in Karko (Kordofan Nubian). STUF - Language Typology and Universals 70:1 ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
Nassenstein, Nico
2017. Pluractional marking in Bunia Swahili (Ituri Kingwana). STUF - Language Typology and Universals 70:1 ► pp. 195 ff. DOI logo
Schneider-Blum, Gertrud
2017. Once or more often? On pluractionality marking in Tima. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 70:1 ► pp. 163 ff. DOI logo
Storch, Anne & Jules Jacques Coly
2017. Introduction. STUF - Language Typology and Universals 70:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue