The Category of Number in some African Languages

old_uid10765
titleThe Category of Number in some African Languages
start_date2012/01/27
schedule13h30
onlineno
location_infoAmpère, 3e étage, salle B314
detailsorganise par : Nathalie Vallée (correspondant ES : Benjamin Roustan)
summaryThe grammatical role of number in African languages is often different from that in many western languages. Number is not always obligatory indicate. A singular base with a derived plural by inflection is only one of many patterns. In Cushitic and in Bantu languages Number is interwoven with Gender. In some languages nominal number marking is less important (or even absent) while the marking of plural action (pluractionality) takes over the function of nominal number marking. Marking of pluractionality is mostly derivational in nature but in some languages it is inflection. I present an overview of interesting number phenomena in African languages and discuss to what extent the view from Africa challenges our understanding of the linguistic category of number.
responsiblesLoevenbruck, Welby