Associative forms in a typology of number systems: evidence from Yup'ik

A general typology of number systems has to confront the problem of variation both in the number values in different languages and in the inventories of nominals involved. We start from the Smith-Stark Hierarchy and extend this approach to additional numbers (such as dual and paucal). Associative pl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Linguistics
Main Authors: Corbett, Greville G., Mithun, Marianne
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1996
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022226700000736
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022226700000736
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Summary:A general typology of number systems has to confront the problem of variation both in the number values in different languages and in the inventories of nominals involved. We start from the Smith-Stark Hierarchy and extend this approach to additional numbers (such as dual and paucal). Associative plurals appear to undermine this typology, if we treat them as a third number. Either the associative plural or the ordinary plural proves to be exceptional.