Mismatches between grammatical number and conceptual numerosity: A number-decision experiment on collective nouns, number neutralization, pluralia tantum, and idiomatic plurals

Nenonen, Marja; Niemi, Jussi

doi:10.1515/flin.2010.004

Cited by 7 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…An experimental study further reflects the similarities between PTN and RPN. Nenonen and Niemi (2010) conducted a kind of lexical-decision experiment in Finnish, in which participants had to state whether the item they were exposed to is associated with one or many referents. While RPN were categorized as "Many" in 92 percent of the cases, PTN were so in about 36 percent.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The duration of word-final s in English: A comparison of regular-plural and pluralia-tantum nouns

Schlechtweg

Corbett

2021

Morphology

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The alveolar fricative occurs in word-final position in English in different grammatical functions. Nominal suffixes may indicate plurality (e.g. cars), genitive case (e.g. car’s) or plurality and genitive case in cumulation (e.g. cars’). Further, there are the third person singular verbal suffix (e.g. she fears) and the cliticized forms of the third person singular forms of have and be (e.g. she’s been lucky; she’s friendly). There is also non-affixal s (e.g. freeze (noun)). Against the standard view that all these types are homophonous, several empirical studies have shown that at least some of the fricatives listed can actually be differentiated in their duration. The present article expands this line of research and considers a further case, which has not been included in previous analyses: pluralia-tantum nouns (e.g. goggles). We report on a carefully controlled reading study in which native speakers of British English produced pluralia-tantum and comparable regular-plural nouns (e.g. toggles). The duration of the word-final fricative was measured, and it was found that the two do not systematically differ in this acoustic parameter. The new data are interpreted in comparison to relevant previous studies, and against the background of the similarities of pluralia-tantum and regular-plural nouns.

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Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The duration of word-final s in English: A comparison of regular-plural and pluralia-tantum nouns

Schlechtweg

Corbett

2021

Morphology

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“…4.6. While morphologists and syntacticians have done most research on pluralia tantum, formal semanticists are becoming curious, as are others in cognitive science (Wisniewski 2009) and psycholinguistics (Bock et al 2001;Nenonen and Niemi 2010;and Nickels et al 2015). Most work in these wider areas, however, is limited to examples like scissors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pluralia tantum nouns and the theory of features: a typology of nouns with non-canonical number properties

Corbett

2018

Morphology

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Many languages have an interesting class of nouns, the pluralia tantum, which have restricted number possibilities when, in some sense, they should not. Thus English binoculars has no singular, which is worth noting (that is, it is not predictable). True, there are other nouns denoting items consisting of two significant parts which behave similarly (spectacles, trousers.. .); indeed they are subject to 'middle-size generalizations' (Koenig 1999). But there are two reasons to note such nouns. First there are many English nouns equally denoting items consisting of two significant parts which are unremarkable in this respect: bicycle, bigraph, Bactrian camel, couple, duo.. . And second, there are languages with number systems roughly comparable to that of English in which the equivalents of binoculars and trousers are normal count nouns: Russian binokl', French pantalon. While pluralia tantum are of continuing interest, it is typically only the English type which is considered. But these familiar examples offer an entry point to a collection of lexical items, some with much stranger behaviour, lurking between the semi-predictable and the unexpectedly defective. In particular, some instances demonstrate that we cannot maintain the general assumption that the 'internal' morphosemantic specification of a paradigm cell and its 'external' morphosyntactic requirement are necessarily identical. I therefore set out a full typology of these fascinating nouns, so that their significance can be more fully appreciated. I start from the notion of canonical noun, and calibrate the different non-canonical properties according to a set of orthogonal criteria.

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The Interaction of Morphosyntax and Semantics in Romance Object Mass Nouns

Mihatsch,

Kleineberg

2024

Nouns and the Morphosyntax / Semantics Interface

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Mismatches between grammatical number and conceptual numerosity: A number-decision experiment on collective nouns, number neutralization, pluralia tantum, and idiomatic plurals

Cited by 7 publications

References 4 publications

The duration of word-final s in English: A comparison of regular-plural and pluralia-tantum nouns

The duration of word-final s in English: A comparison of regular-plural and pluralia-tantum nouns

Pluralia tantum nouns and the theory of features: a typology of nouns with non-canonical number properties

The Interaction of Morphosyntax and Semantics in Romance Object Mass Nouns

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