In this paper I argue that there is no true number morphology in Jamaican Creole (JC). Instead, I show that dem, traditionally taken to be a plural marker, is more properly analyzed as a marker of inclusiveness, a defining characteristic of definiteness. These are expected outcomes of JC being in the class of languages which are claimed to have set nouns, i.e. nouns which, when combined with a numeral X, refer to an X-numbered set of individuals rather than to X number of individuals (Rijkhoff 2004). Since JC does not mark plurality in the same way as its lexifier English, individuation and number in JC cannot be analysed in the same way as is done for English. The proposal for a syntactic analysis of number in JC, given the above, is that functional structure above the NP provides for optional individuation via Cl(assifier)Phrase, and additionally for optional number specification, via Num(ber)Phrase.

In this paper I argue that there is no plural marking in Jamaican Creole (JC), since post-nominal dem, traditionally analyzed as a marker of plurality, is instead best considered to be what I call an Inclusiveness marker. As a consequence of the lack of plural marking, all the interpretations of both singular and plural noun phrases in a number-marking language such as English, may be assigned to the JC noun phrase. I argue that this availability of multiple sense possibilities points to the need for functional structure above the NP, which projects in a plural interpretation, when there is a need to individuate. I extend the analysis to definiteness and indefiniteness, which the data show may exist even when they are not phonetically realized. Thus, there is also functional structure above the JC noun phrase which regulates the expression of definiteness even where there is no overt manifestation of this phenomenon. Noun phrases lacking overt functional modifiers, traditionally “bare” noun phrases, then, are not considered to be structurally bare if they express definiteness or indefiniteness.

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