3.4.Other marking strategies v 3.5.The problem of participant plurality: syntactic agreement (nominal number) or semantic selection (verbal number)? 4. Pluractional constructions: some case studies 4.1.Pluractionals in Akawaio (Cariban, Venezuelan) 4.1.1. Strategies of marking and functions of Akawaio pluractionals 4.1.2. The semantic map of pluractionals in Akawaio 4.1.3. The case of the collective -gong in Akawaio 4.1.4. Beyond Akawaio: pluractionality in other Cariban languages 4.2.Pluractionals in Beja (Afro-Asiatic, Cushitic) 4.2.1. Strategies of marking and functions of Beja pluractionals 4.2.1.1. Strategies of marking pluractionality in Beja 4.2.1.2. The functional domain of Beja pluractionals 4.2.2. The semantic map of pluractionals in Beja 4.2.3. Pluractionality in Cushitic languages: an independent phenomenon 4.3.Pluractionals in Maa (Nilotic, Eastern Nilotic) 4.3.1. Strategies of marking and functions of Maa pluractionals 4.3.1.1. Stem alternation 4.3.1.2. Reduplication 4.3.2. The semantic map of pluractionals in Maa 4.3.3. The case of direction Away: an incoming pluractional marker? 4.3.4. Pluractionality in Maa 4.4.What do these case studies tell us? 5. Pluractional constructions in cross-linguistic perspective 5.1. Pluractionality as a heterogeneous phenomenon 5.1.1. Strategies of marking 5.1.2. Diachronic data and sources 5.1.2.1. Demonstratives vi 5.1.2.2. Verbs of feeling: love/like (or hate) 5.1.2.3. Locative or positional verbs: sit/stay 5.1.2.4. Pluractional markers as sources for other constructions 5.2.The categorial status of pluractional constructions 5.3.The language-and construction-specificity of pluractionality 5.4.The relationship between pluractionality and other types of constructions 6. Conclusion References. Appendix: Language Sample. vii List of Tables 1.1 -Classification of the types of situational plurality (Xrakovskij 1997a:27). 13-4 3.1 -Criteria to distinguish repetition and reduplication (Gil 2005:33) 94 4.1 -Number of occurrences of the functions encoded by -pödï in Akawaio. 138-9 4.2 -Number of occurrences of the functions encoded by Intensive in Beja. 164 4.3 -Number of occurrences of functions encoded by Pluractional in Beja. 168-9 4.4 -Verb stems of the verbs 'go' and 'come' in Maa (Doris Payne p.c.). 182-3 4.5 -Functions of reduplicated verbs in Maa. 193-4 5.1 -Pluractional marking strategies in Chadic languages.(1) a.John kicks the ball b. John kicks the ball several timesThis additional element marks a plurality of actions, i.e. an action that is performed more than once. In the case of (1), it consists with an agent that kicks to the ball several times.The present work investigates this phenomenon in cross-linguistic perspective, through the analysis of a sample of 241 languages. (33) Cilubà (Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo) M-bowà nè N-gandù bà-vwa CL1n-buffalo and CL1n-crocodile CL2-PST ba-eeò-èsh-àngàn-e CL2-throw-CAUS-PR-FV 'The buffalo and the crocodile were having a discussion.' (Dom, Segerer & Bostoen 2015:370) (34) Cilubà (Atlantic-Congo, Volta-Congo) Mu-lùme ù...

This paper aims at giving a typological overview of pluractionality in order to show how grammatical categories, in cross-linguistic perspective, cannot be considered as universally valid entities. After having defined the phenomenon, I will present the main functions and some formal characteristics that pluractional markers have in the languages of the world. Then, I will describe the diachronic sources from which pluractional markers probably come from. Finally, I will discuss the grammatical status that pluractionality has in cross-linguistic perspective in the light of the broad variety it shows in the languages of the world and also taking into consideration data from specific languages.

The paper investigates discontinuous reduplication (DR), a pattern where reduplicant and base are separated by other material, by annotating a 214-example dataset collected from a 99-language sample. Several items turned out to serve as interposing elements, although their nature does not seem to correlate with function, unlike the category of the base. DR’s functions are a subset of those associated with reduplication cross-linguistically. All languages displaying DR also present contiguous reduplication, suggesting a contiguous reduplication > discontinuous reduplication hierarchy. Finally, a corpus-based analysis of Italian (lacking DR according to grammars) unveiled a wealth of DR patterns, suggesting that corpora are essential for the typological enterprise.

This paper aims at investigating the semantics of nominal reduplication cross-linguistically. Nominal reduplication is treated as an iconic morphological device expressing functions that have something to do with plurality. Nevertheless, in the languages of the world, other types of functions are attested as well, which seem to pivot around different notions like conceptual similarity, heterogeneity, combinations of them, or even possession. Based on a large-scale cross-linguistic analysis, we provide a typology of nominal reduplication considering the range of semantic functions and the type of reduplicative patterns. We argue that the attested variation clearly points to a common semantic core underlying the various functions, and this core can be identified in some modification of the degree and type of referentiality. Finally, the attested tendencies and correlations may shed new light on the role of iconicity in explaining the connection between reduplicated nouns and their functions.

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