The Plural Is Semantically Unmarked
The Plural Is Semantically Unmarked
复制标题
复数在语义上没有标记
DOI：
10.1515/9783110197549.413
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发表时间：
2005
影响因子：
1.1
通讯作者：
Kazuko Yatsushiro
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
U. Sauerland;Jan Anderssen;Kazuko Yatsushiro
在公元前世纪，Marcus Terentius Varro在他的拉丁语语法De Lingua Latina中使用了术语singularis和multitudinis来指两类形态标记（参见1998年的《拉丁语语法》）。Taylor 1996）。在瓦罗写作之后不久，术语pluralis取代了multitudinis（例如在公元世纪Marcus Fabius Quintilian的Institutio oratoria）。瓦罗对术语的选择似乎受到了语义直觉的启发：Singularis字面上的意思是“单独”，大概是指一个名词所指对象的基数等于1。另一方面，Multitudinis来自multitudo（“众多/大量”）。Pluralis取代了Varro的术语，来自plus（“更多”）。这种术语的选择表明，multitudinis/pluralis形式需要所指对象的基数大于1。瓦罗的术语单数和术语复数已经在语言学文献中广泛使用，因为许多语言都表现出与拉丁语类似的区别。此外，瓦罗的语义直觉在当前的语义工作中被广泛接受。例如，最近一项关于复数语义的研究简单地指出：[Plurality]只是意味着“不止一个”（Lasersohn 1995，ix）。然而，有几种情况下，复数似乎并不意味着基数大于一。考虑A。（1）至（4）中的示例，并将其与B进行比较。两个或两个以上（或德语（4 b）中的zwei（“两个”））被加到复数名词上的例子。2（1）a.欢迎你带孩子来B.你可以带两个或更多的孩子。(2)a.每个男孩都应该邀请他的姐妹篇。B.每个男孩都应该邀请他的两个或两个以上的姐妹篇。(3)a.没有椅子可用。B.两个或两个以上的椅子不可用（4）a.你能帮我拿点3 PL的吗？有点皱了。你能挪过去一点吗？
In the first century b.c., Marcus Terentius Varro used the terms singularis and multitudinis in his grammar of Latin, De Lingua Latina, to refer to two classes of morphological marking (cf. Taylor 1996). Soon after Varro’s writing, the term pluralis replaced multitudinis (e.g. in Marcus Fabius Quintilian’s Institutio oratoria in the first century A.D.) while the term singularis caught on. Varro’s choice of terminology seems to have been inspired by a semantic intuition: Singularis literally means ‘alone’ and presumably was taken to mean that the cardinality of the intended referent of a noun is equal to one. Multitudinis, on the other hand, derives from multitudo (‘multitude/great number’).1 Pluralis, which replaced Varro’s term, derives from plus (‘more’). This choice of terminology suggests that multitudinis/pluralis forms entail that the cardinality of the intended referent is greater than one. Varro’s term singular and the term plural have come to be widely used in the linguistic literature as many languages display a similar distinction as Latin does. Moreover, Varro’s semantic intuition is widely accepted in current semantic work. For example, a fairly recent work on the semantics of plurality simply states: [Plurality] just means ‘more than one’ (Lasersohn 1995, ix). There are, however, several cases where the plural does not seem to imply cardinality greater than one. Consider the a. examples in (1) through (4), and compare them to the b. examples where two or more (or zwei (‘two’) in the German (4b)) is added to the plural noun.2 (1) a. You’re welcome to bring your children. b. You’re welcome to bring your two or more children. (2) a. Every boy should invite his sisters. b. Every boy should invite his two or more sisters. (3) a. No chairs are available. b. Two or more chairs aren’t available (4) a. Konnten Could Sie pro.3PL bitte please etwas a little rucken. move ‘Could you please move over.’