Nominal Number Morphology

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the variation observed across nominal number systems cross-linguistically. The morphological realization of number varies with respect to the range of number values marked and the range of nouns that take number marking in a given language. However, the study of nominal number morphology is further complicated by the intricate interactions of morphology with syntax and semantics. On the syntactic side, nominal number morphology interacts with definiteness marking and syntactic role. On the semantic side, certain types of nominal number marking impose semantically specific readings on the nominals contrasting with other types of nominal number marking that allow inclusive plural readings in certain semantic contexts. The study of number-neutral reference has to examine the semantic effects arising from morphological, syntactic, and semantic sources separately.