The linguistic expression of number in Baïnounk languages: Chapter 8. When number meets classification

Cobbinah, Alexander; Lüpke, Friederike

doi:10.1075/slcs.151.08cob

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. 199–220

Get fulltext from our e-platform

Download Book PDF

Chapter 8. When number meets classification

The linguistic expression of number in Baïnounk languages

Alexander Cobbinah

Friederike Lüpke

Published online: 19 March 2014

https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.151.08cob

This paper presents an account of number marking in two BaÃ¯nounk languages, GubÃ«eher and Gujaher, also taking data from the BaÃ¯nounk language GuÃ±aamolo into account. Number distinctions in these languages are coded epiphenominally through the paradigmatic relationships and combinatorial semantics of prefixes and roots within the nominal classification system. In addition, number can be marked through a dedicated plural suffix of the form -VÅ‹. In line with observations made for Bantu and other Atlantic languages, we analyse number marking within the noun class system (and, to some extent also through the number suffix) as derivational, not inflectional. Additionally, we demonstrate that number values do not reside in noun class prefixes themselves, but arise through the paradigmatic relationships holding between prefix and root and between prefix-root combinations in a paradigm. This account goes against a widespread analytical template of assigning singular and plural values to prefixes and assuming number correspondences between them.

References (22)

References

Aronoff, Mark. 1998. Gender agreement as morphology. In Proceedings of the First Mediterranean Conference on Morphology , Geert Booij, Angela Ralli & Sergio Scalise (eds). Patras: University of Patras.

Berlin, Brent. 1977. Speculations of the growth of ethnobotanical nomenclature. In Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Change , Benjamin Blount & Mary Sanches (eds), 63–102. New York NY: Academic Press.

Childs, G. Tucker. 1983. Noun class affix renewal in south West Atlantic. In Current approaches to African linguistics II, Jonathan D. Kaye, Hilda Koopman, Dominique Sportiche & André Dugas (eds), 17–29. Dordrecht: Foris.

Cobbinah, Alexander. 2010. The Casamance as an area of intense language contact. The case of Baïnouk Gubaher. Journal of Language Contact 3 : 175–201.

. 2013. Nominal Classification and Verbal Nouns in Baïnounk Gubëeher. PhD dissertation, School of Oriental and African Languages, University of London.

. In preparation. Agreement of nouns with suffixed plurals in Nyun from a historical and genetic perspective.

Corbett, Greville G. 2000. Number . Cambridge: CUP.

Creissels, Denis. 2012. Matériaux pour un dictionnaire mandinka. <[URL]>

Crisma, Paola, Marten, Lutz & Sybesma, Rint. 2011. The point of Bantu, Chinese and Romance nominal classification. Italian Journal of Linguistics/Rivista di Linguistica 23(2): 251–299

Dimitriadis, Alexis. 1997. Alliterative concord in phonology-free syntax. Paper presented at the GLOW workshop on the morpho-syntax of African and Afro-Asiatic languages at Rabat, Morocco.

Dobrin, Lise. 1995. Theoretical consequences of literal alliterative concord. Chicago Linguistic Society (regional meeting) 31(1): 127–142.

Hendrikse, Andries Petrus. 2001. Systemic polysemy in the Southern Bantu noun class system. In Polysemy in Cognitive Linguistics [Current Issues in Linguisic Theory 177], Hubert Cuyckens & Britta Zawada (eds), 185–212. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Kihm, Alain. 2005. Noun class, gender, and the lexicon-syntax-morphology interfaces. A comparative study of Niger-Congo and Romance languages. In The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax , Guglielmo Cinque & Richard S. Kayne (eds), 459–513. Oxford: OUP.

Lüpke, Friederike. 2010. Language and identity in flux. In search of Baïnouk. Journal of Language Contact 3: 155–174.

. 2011. Orthography development. In Handbook of Endangered Languages , Peter K. Austin & Julia Sallabank (eds), 312–336. Cambridge: CUP.

. Forthcoming. Atlantic. In Handbook of African Languages , Rainer Vossen (ed.). Oxford: OUP.

. In preparation. Nothing to agree with - literal alliterative concord in Baïnounk revisited.

Sauvageot, Serge. 1967. Note sur la classification nominale en baïnouk. In La classification nominale dans les langues négro-africaines , Gabriel Manessy (ed.), 225–236. Paris: Editions du CNRS.

. 1987a. La linguistique en tant que témoignage historique: Le cas du baynunk. Cahiers du C.R.A . 5: 17–22.

. 1987b. Esquisse du système verbal du baïnouk . Paris: CNRS.

Schadeberg, Thilo C. 2001. Number in Swahili Grammar. Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 68: 7–16. Köln.

Smith-Stark, Cedric T. 1974. The plurality split. CLS 10: 657–671.

Cited by (39)

Cited by 39 other publications

Order by:

Friederike Lüpke

2024. The Oxford Guide to the Atlantic Languages of West Africa,

Mauri, Caterina & Andrea Sansò

2023. Heterogeneous sets: a diachronic typology of associative and similative plurals. Linguistic Typology 27:1 ► pp. 1 ff.

Al-Zahre, Nisrine

2021. Dual in Standard and Syrian Arabic. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 407 ff.

Alexiadou, Artemis

2021. Lexical Plurals. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 242 ff.

Arka, I Wayan

2021. Number in Marori. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 661 ff.

Arka, I Wayan & Mary Dalrymple

2021. Number in Balinese. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 682 ff.

Bale, Alan

2021. Number and the Mass–Count Distinction. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 40 ff.

Beck, Sigrid

2021. Multiple Events and ‘N Preposition N’. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 342 ff.

Biedermann, Britta, Nora Fieder & Karen Smith-Lock

2021. Nominal Number and Language Pathologies. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 291 ff.

Butler, Lindsay

2021. Non-inflectional plural in Yucatec Maya. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 485 ff.

Cabredo Hofherr, Patricia

2021. Verbal Plurality Cross-Linguistically. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 307 ff.

Cabredo Hofherr, Patricia

2021. Nominal Number Morphology. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 135 ff.

Patricia Cabredo Hofherr & Jenny Doetjes

2021. The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number,

Cabredo Hofherr, Patricia & Jenny Doetjes

2021. Introduction. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 1 ff.

Cheung, Pierina

2021. Individuation. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 101 ff.

Dali, Myriam & Eric Mathieu

2021. Singulative Systems. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 275 ff.

de Swart, Henriëtte

2021. Bare Nouns and Number. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 197 ff.

de Vries, Hanna

2021. Collective Nouns. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 257 ff.

Doetjes, Jenny

2021. Number and Numeral Classifiers. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 220 ff.

Doetjes, Jenny

2021. Number and Quantity Expressions. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 65 ff.

Dotlačil, Jakub

2021. Semantic Approaches to Number. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 15 ff.

Farkas, Donka F.

2021. Multiple Event Readings with Dependent Indefinites. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 381 ff.

Ferreira, Marcelo

2021. Bare nominals and number in Brazilian Portuguese. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 497 ff.

Gehrke, Berit

2021. Multiple Event Readings andOccasional-Type Adjectives. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 362 ff.

Grimm, Scott

2021. Inverse number in Dagaare. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 445 ff.

Henderson, Robert

2021. Dependent Numerals in Kaqchikel. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 627 ff.

Lima, Suzi

2021. Production and comprehension studies on the mass–count distinction in Yudja. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 583 ff.

Marten, Lutz

2021. Noun Classes and Plurality in Bantu Languages. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 539 ff.

Marušič, Franc & Rok Žaucer

2021. Dual in Slovenian. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 428 ff.

Mous, Maarten

2021. Nominal number in Cushitic. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 522 ff.

Paul, Moles, Anne Zribi-Hertz & Herby Glaude

2021. Countability and Number Without Number Inflection. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 558 ff.

Pfau, Roland & Markus Steinbach

2021. Number in Sign Languages. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 644 ff.

Schiller, Niels O. & Rinus Verdonschot

2021. Number in the Mental Lexicon. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 112 ff.

Tomioka, Satoshi

2021. Japanese -tatiand generalized associative plurals. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 463 ff.

Wiltschko, Martina

2021. The Syntax of Number Markers. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 164 ff.

Zimmermann, Malte

2021. Verbal Number in Chadic, with Special Reference to Hausa. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. 597 ff.

Voisin, Sylvie

2015. Sur l’origine du suffixe du pluriel dans le groupe Nyun-Buy. Linguistique et langues africaines :1 ► pp. 1341 ff.

[no author supplied]

2021. List of Abbreviations. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. viii ff.

[no author supplied]

2021. Copyright Page. In The Oxford Handbook of Grammatical Number, ► pp. iv ff.

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.