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Plurality and pluractionality in Kanuri

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Published/Copyright: March 2, 2017

Abstract

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.

Abbreviations

aux

auxiliary verb

con

consonant

mc

meaning carrier

oj

object

pl

plural

pron

pronoun

sg

singular

sj

subject

sj1,2

subject morpheme, 1st & 2nd person

sj3

subject morpheme, 3rd person

tam

tense, aspect, mood

vb

verb base

vc

verbal complex

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Published Online: 2017-3-2
Published in Print: 2017-4-1

©2017 by De Gruyter Mouton

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