Volume 70, Issue 1 -

Chadic languages are known for marking verbal number, and Goemai is no exception. When comparing Goemai to other Chadic languages, however, several differences emerge: the inventory is exceptionally large; the verbs come from all lexical fields; and they are used to indicate participant number rather than event number. Contrary to expectations, the marking of participant number does not only cover intransitive subjects and transitive objects, but also some transitive subjects and peripheral arguments. These patterns have a semantic basis, and this chapter explores the interaction of verbal number, transitivity and semantic roles in Goemai.

This paper illustrates formation processes of verbal and nominal plurals in West Chadic languages of the Bade-Ngizim group. Examples are drawn from Gashua Bade, Western Bade, and Ngizim. It is demonstrated that verbal and nominal plurals in these languages synchronically employ similar morphological processes, i. e. reduplication of a CV syllable to the left. While this is the only process attested with verbal plurals, noun plurals frequently employ additional suffixes. Beyond that, formation processes of plural imperatives are outlined. We conclude that formation processes can adequately be described while their actual functions and their use in discourse are still rather fuzzy.

Maaka is a West Chadic language which exhibits a rich system of verbal number marking, which in part resembles those of its close relatives. But apart from the more ‘typical’ pluractionals also found elsewhere in Chadic, Maaka has verbal number markers that differ by expressing number values and meanings that are otherwise characteristic for nouns in languages where number marking correlates with nominal aspect. In Maaka, not only nouns can be differentiated according to countability and membership in semantic categories, but verbs as well: Events are framed as either multiple and similar or multiple and diverse, as happening at one single place or involving several locations and different groups of agents and patients. This chapter illustrates in which ways lexical aspect plays an important role in the selection of a specific pluractional form of a given verb.

The paper provides an overview of verbal plural marking and its function in several Bole-Tangale-languages (West-Chadic A). Verbal plurals – or pluractionals – may express repeated action and/or distributivity in most of these languages. In some of the languages under consideration two verbal plural marking strategies can be identified: partial reduplication and infixation/gemination. While partial reduplication seems to be the most generally applicable device to express repeated action and/or plurality of action, the function of infixation/gemination seems to be more specialized towards distributivity.

When taking a closer look at plurality and pluraction in Kanuri, the first impression is refuted, that this is a fruitless topic. While the common pluralization of nouns is uniform, there are some nominals, which have a pluralic base and, therefore, have to be singularized. Regular plurals are executed by a suffixation to the respective noun. Other pluralic forms, e. g. the collective plural, appear as cliticized modifiers of a noun phrase. Patterns of pronoun plurals are: a) different forms in singular and plural, b) pluralization of the singular. Pluraction in the verbal complex is done by reduplication. However, we can detect – nowadays defunct – inflectional processes.

The present paper is concerned with Karko, a Kordofan Nubian language of Sudan. The paper tries to show how verbal number formally interacts with the encoding of grammatical relations. Verbal number – as realized by singular stems and plural stems – is sensitive to the number of the intransitive subject, the number of the transitive object and the number of the direct object in a ditransitive clause. Moreover, the paper provides evidence of passive and anti-passive constructions being based on plural (rather than singular) verb stems. This suggests that plural verb stems are associated with reduced transitivity.

This chapter investigates pluractionals in Dagik, a Kordofanian language spoken in the Nuba Mountains in Sudan. There is a wealth of derivational means to build pluractionals: two verbal extensions, several types of partial stem reduplication and stem replacement. These derivational means can be combined with one another, suggesting that some of them are in the process of getting recycled. The core meaning of pluractionals is multiplicity of occurrence of the verbal process. The latter is either carried out by or onto several participants (distributive meaning), or carried out several times by one participant (iterative meaning). Additional readings (durative, telic and habitual) are available.

The verbal root in Tima may be marked for one or several derivational functions, such as transitive, ventive, antipassive, middle voice, causative, instrumental, or pluractionality. Contrary to other derivational devices, pluractional marking can be achieved by various formal strategies, which are described in detail in the present contribution. Pluractional marking on Tima verbs indicates only repeated action or duration, depending on the lexical aspect of the verb; the number of the subject or object does not interfere with the marking. However, certain constructions force the speaker to use the pluractional as default form; the focus is on the action itself in such constructions.

The concept of pluractionality is less common in Bantu languages than in other language families, such as Chadic (Afro-Asiatic) and various Nilo-Saharan languages. Yet many Bantu languages reveal patterns of habituals, combinations of verbal extensions and reduplication patterns that can function in pluractional-like ways in order to mark “plurality or multiplicity of the verb’s action” (Nurse 2008, Tense and aspect in Bantu . Oxford: Oxford University Press: 314). Bunia Swahili, an un(der)documented variety of Swahili spoken in Eastern DR Congo, has undergone contact-induced change that can be traced back to Central Sudanic languages, and has developed fluid registers of socially motivated realization. It contains different habitual markers expressing deviating semantic concepts, while habitual markers can also be combined in order to express evidentiality. Reduplication patterns as markers for pluractionality and their co-occurrence with habituals as gradual semantic continua are both taken into account in this preliminary overview. It is therefore proposed that ‘semantic aspect’ plays a predominant role in pluractional constructions in Bunia Swahili.

Verbal plural is marked morphologically by a suffix of the verb or by reduplication of the verb stem. Only the latter way is productive. Plurality may refer to the participants, the actions, or the outcome of actions. Singular is a vague category. The so-called singular forms of many verbs may be used number neutrally to describe singular or plural actions or events, while the plural forms are used in order to disambiguate. With other verbs the two forms distinguish between a non-high and a high degree of plurality of action.