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The Papuan language Mian allows us to refine the typology of nominal classification. Mian has two candidate classification systems, differing completely in their formal realization but overlapping considerably in their semantics. To determine whether to analyse Mian as a single system or concurrent systems we adopt a canonical approach. Our criteria - orthogonality of the systems (we give a precise measure), semantic compositionality, morphosyntactic alignment, distribution across parts of speech, exponence, and interaction with other features - point mainly to an analysis as concurrent systems. We thus improve our analysis of Mian and make progress with the typology of nominal classification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Verbs in San Pedro Amuzgo, an Oto-Manguean language of Mexico, often have two different stems in the paradigm, one used with singular subjects and the other with plural subjects. This split motivated by number is typologically interesting due to its rarity, since number splits are commonly along the S/O vs. A distinction, not the S/A vs. O distinction. Apart from at stem level, the split is also manifested in the incompletive of an inflectional class of verbs. At stem level the plural stem is derived in a variety of unproductive ways, making the relation between singular and plural stems, synchronically, one of suppletion. In this article, we study the distribution and the morphological properties of this split in depth, using a sample of almost 600 fully inflected verbs from a large database compiled by native linguist Fermín Tapia and now publicly accessible on the Surrey Morphology Group's website. We also place it in a typological context, relating it to other systems we have observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article two hypotheses about the relationship of verbal and adnominal agreement are proposed: first, it is claimed that languages tend to have adnominal agreement only if they also have verbal agreement, but not vice versa. Second, it is argued that languages with adnominal agreement are areally restricted, while languages with verbal agreement are not. A sample of languages was selected to test these hypotheses, and both are confirmed by the data. The article closes with an admittedly speculative explanation of the hypotheses involving patterns of grammaticalization of different types of agreement markers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oceanic languages have rich systems of number marking, most including for-mal exponence of a dual, and very many also marking trial and/or paucal. In most Vanuatu languages number marking combines with person marking, including clusivity, in both independent pronoun paradigms and subject refer-encing paradigms. This study of pairs of these two kinds of paradigms in 34 Vanuatu languages shows that, in contrast to person values which can have fewer contrasting forms only in a subject referencing paradigm, contrasts in number values may be fewer either in the independent pronoun paradigm or in the corresponding subject referencing paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spoken languages employ various strategies to mark the plural of nouns, the most important ones being affixation, reduplication, and zero marking; within one language, different strategies and/or different morphological markers may be used, depending on lexical, phonological, or morphological properties of the base noun. In this article we present the first cross-modal typological study of noun pluralization. A comparison of the patterns found in sign languages, in particular German Sign Language (DGS), to those described for spoken languages will show that DGS patterns with spoken languages in that (i) different plural marking strategies are available, (ii) within one strategy (reduplication) there are different types of realization, and (iii) the choice of strategy and of type crucially depend on phonological properties of the base noun, in particular, on the noun's location and movement features. The description of basic plural patterns is supplemented by a typological sketch of the use of classifiers in plural constructions and by an investigation of how and where plural is realized within the noun phrase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intensifiers such as himself/herself in English, ipse/ipsa in Latin, stesso/stessa in Italian, sam/samá in Russian, or selbst in German are most easily identifiable in terms of their prosodic and semantic properties. They are invariably in focus and therefore typically stressed, thus evoking specific types of alternative values. Based on a detailed discussion of the distribution and meaning of intensifiers in English, this article describes the major patterns of variation observable in the form of intensifiers across languages. Five types of intensifiers are distinguished on the basis of morpho-syntactic properties like inflection and agreement, and a number of implications and correlations between formal and distributional parameters of variation are pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]