Pluralia tantum nouns and the theory of features: a typology of nouns with non-canonical number properties
Pluralia tantum nouns and the theory of features: a typology of nouns with non-canonical number properties
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复数 tantum 名词和特征理论:具有非规范数属性的名词类型学
DOI:
10.1007/s11525-018-9336-0
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发表时间:
2018
期刊:
影响因子:
1.4
通讯作者:
Corbett G
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Corbett G
Many languages have an interesting class of nouns, the pluralia tantum, which have restricted number possibilities when, in some sense, they should not. Thus Englishbinocularshas no singular, which is worth noting (that is, it is not predictable). True, there are other nouns denoting items consisting of two significant parts which behave similarly (spectacles,trousers…); indeed they are subject to ‘middle-size generalizations’ (Koenig 1999). But there are two reasons to note such nouns. First there are many English nouns equally denoting items consisting of two significant parts which are unremarkable in this respect:bicycle, bigraph, Bactrian camel, couple, duo… And second, there are languages with number systems roughly comparable to that of English in which the equivalents ofbinocularsandtrousersare normal count nouns: Russianbinokl’, Frenchpantalon. While pluralia tantum are of continuing interest, it is typically only the English type which is considered. But these familiar examples offer an entry point to a collection of lexical items, some with much stranger behaviour, lurking between the semi-predictable and the unexpectedly defective. In particular, some instances demonstrate that we cannot maintain the general assumption that the ‘internal’ morphosemantic specification of a paradigm cell and its ‘external’ morphosyntactic requirement are necessarily identical. I therefore set out a full typology of these fascinating nouns, so that their significance can be more fully appreciated. I start from the notion of canonical noun, and calibrate the different non-canonical properties according to a set of orthogonal criteria.
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DOI:
--
发表时间:
2016
期刊:
影响因子:
--
作者:
Paolo Acquaviva
通讯作者:
Paolo Acquaviva
DOI:
--
发表时间:
2018
期刊:
影响因子:
--
作者:
D. Nicolás
通讯作者:
D. Nicolás
影响因子:
1.4
作者:
Erich R. Round;G. Corbett
通讯作者:
G. Corbett
影响因子:
1.1
作者:
G. Corbett;S. Fedden
通讯作者:
S. Fedden
DOI:
--
发表时间:
2003
期刊:
影响因子:
--
作者:
M. Fidler;S. Wechsler;L. Zlatic
通讯作者:
L. Zlatic