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Paper name: Grammatical Categories

Paper Coordinator name Ayesha Kidwai and contact:

Module name [NUMBER] and [PERSON]

Content Writer (CW) Ayesha Kidwai Name

Email id [email protected]

Phone 9968655009

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. [NUMBER]

3. [PERSON]

4. Capturing Pronominal Systems through feature geometries

4.1 A monovalent system: Harley and Ritter (1992)

4.2 A binary feature geometry for Santali pronominals

5. Clusivity in the Languages of the Subcontinent

6. Conclusion

References

1. Introduction In this unit, we begin our examination of the inherent features of nouns — [NUMBER] and [PERSON]. These features are morphosyntactic in all those languages in which they can be shown to be involved in either agreement or government, but where such involvement cannot be found, we would label these as morphosemantic alone. However, a decision that these features are purely morphosemantic is often difficult to make with any degree of certainty; as a consequence, most linguists would be committed to a default analysis of these three features as morphosyntactic. Sections 2 to 4 explore the typology of values that the features [NUMBER] and [PERSON] may instantiate, and how they interact.

2. [NUMBER] An inherent semantic feature, as Kibort & Corbett (2008) observe, [NUMBER] is the grammatical category which encodes quantification over entities denoted by nouns or nominal elements and derives from the ability to perceive something as a token, an instance of a class of referents, and the ability to differentiate between one and more than one (i.e. the 'plurality' of) instances of the referent.

Many of the world‘s languages, however choose not to encode just a basic ‗one vs. many‘ distinction (denoted by singular vs. plural morphology), and mark dual, trial, and paucal values as well. All possible feature values of NUMBER are defined below (adapted from Kibort & Corbett 2008):

 The Singular quantifies the denotation of the nominal element by specifying that there is exactly 'one', i.e. the item is an atom. The term 'singulative' is sometimes used for the concept 'singular', especially when the singular is overtly expressed.

 The Plural quantifies the denotation of the nominal element by specifying that there are 'more than one'. The meaning of plural number naturally varies according to the system in which it is embedded – if that system also specifies, dual, then the meaning of the value is restricted to ‗more than two‘.

 The Dual quantifies the denotation of the nominal element by specifying that there are exactly 'two'. A standard example is that of Sanskrit: puruʃas "man" (singular) – puruʃau "two men" (dual) – puruʃās "men" (plural), where the dual is used to refer to any two entities. In other languages, its use may be restricted to refer to those entities that make natural pair such as eyes, hands, etc; and in yet others, it can only refer to two items provided they are not natural pair (Corbett 2000).

 The Trial quantifies the denotation of the nominal element by specifying that there are exactly 'three'. Trial occurs in systems with the number values: singular, dual, trial and plural. A language that expresses trial is Bislama, a Creole language, one of the official languages of Vanuatu.

 The Paucal quantifies the denotation of the nominal element by specifying that there is a 'small number' of distinct refers to a small number of distinct real-world entities, i.e. a noun X so marked will refer to ‗a few X‘. The upper bound on the number of entities that may be marked by the paucal varies from language system to language system, while its lower bound depends on whether there is a dual and trial in the system. Languages with the paucal include Arabic, Hopi and Warlpiri. In Arabic, the paucal is used to indicate less than ten entities.

 The Greater Paucal is only found in languages that also have the value 'paucal'. It has the basic

semantics as the paucal, except that it specifies that there is a 'small number' of distinct entities which are greater than that expressed by the paucal. Sursurunga, an Oceanic language, expresses this distinction, where the greater paucal marks pronouns as ―a minimum of four‖.

It is important to bear in mind that in many languages, the absence of number morphology on the noun in a language does not necessarily indicate that its nouns lack the inherent feature of [NUMBER]. Many languages may have morphological exponents for only some aspects of the opposition — e.g., in Hindi, only the plural is morphologically marked, and at least for some varieties of the language, plural morphology is optional in the context of a numeral:

(1) Hindi a. l iy y- b. tin l i y- girls came-F.PL three girl came -F.PL ‗The girls came‘ ‗Three girl came‘

3. [PERSON] Grammatical person marks the grammatical distinction between deictic references to participant(s) in an event; typically the distinction is between the speaker, the addressee, and others. Since the assignment of [PERSON] changes from speech act to speech act, it is a selected semantically determined inherent feature, and is typically definitional of a language's set of personal pronouns. The feature can have the following values (based on Kibort 2008):

 The FIRST PERSON refers minimally to the speaker, but may also refer to the speaker combined with the non-participant(s). For example, a single individual may utter the sentence ―We are leaving‖ in a perfectly felicitous way to mean that she and some other non-participant(s) are leaving. In some languages, first person pronouns are also marked by a clusivity distinction, by which the addressee is included in the reference of the pronoun:

o FIRST PERSON INCLUSIVE refers minimally to the speaker and the addressee. Note that in a language there has to be a first person inclusive for there to be a first person exclusive but, theoretically at least, the opposite need not hold.

o FIRST PERSON EXCLUSIVE expresses the exclusion of the addressee, so first person

exclusive refers minimally to the speaker.

 The SECOND PERSON refers minimally to the addressee, but may also refer to the addressee combined with non-participants.

 The THIRD PERSON refers to the non-participant (other than the speaker and the addressee) in the discourse. Some languages may also make a distinction between non-participants in terms of their distance from the speaker.

o THIRD PERSON PROXIMATE refers to one or more non-participants that are in some way closer to the speaker than other non-participants.

o THIRD PERSON OBVIATIVE refers to one or more non-participants that are in some way further removed from the speaker than other non-participants.

A good example of such a language is Santali, whose pronouns are listed in (2).

(2) Santali pronominals

PERSON SINGULAR DUAL PLURAL 1P EXCLUSIVE iɲ liɲ lɛ

INCLUSIVE l ŋ bo 2P m ben pɛ 3P uni unkin onko

(3) lists the semantic generalisations we can make to capture the reference of the Santali pronominals. A language that lacks a clusivity distinction will have only the meanings listed in (3b)-(d).

(3) a. 1P inclusive pronouns identify referents containing a speaker and an addressee

b. 1P EXCL pronouns identify all other referents containing an speaker c. 2P pronouns identify all other referents containing an addressee d. 3P pronouns identify all other referents

In the concluding section, we turn to an influential paper by Harley and Ritter that allows us to capture the feature geometries of pronouns.

4. Capturing Pronominal Systems through feature geometries

4.1 A monovalent feature geometry: Harley and Ritter (1992) In an influential paper, Harley and Ritter (2002) suggest that pronouns may be considered to instantiate the following geometry of three major features: [PARTICIPANT], [INDIVIDUATION], and [CLASS] which we shall, for now, call [GENDER].

In this system, 3rd person is not a feature value of [PARTICIPANT]. This is in line with the arguments of Forchheimer (1953), and Benveniste (1971). As Forchheimer (1953: p.5-6) puts it ―Whoever does not act a role in the conversation either as speaker or as addressed remains in the great pool of the impersonal, referred to as ‗third person‘.‖ This absence of 3rd person feature value shows up grammatically, he observes, as many languages use demonstratives in lieue of 3rd person pronouns, and do not mark formality on 3rd persons. Hindi is a good example of this fact – the 3rd person pronominal is form-identical to the distal demonstrative (vo) and has no formal counterpart (unlike the 2nd person tum, which has both an intimate form tu and a formal one aap).

(4) Harley and Ritter’s Morphosyntactic Geometry of Pronouns

The [INDIVIDUATION] feature and its values represent number systems. the MINIMAL value represents singular entities and GROUP represents plural number. The AUGMENTED node captures the paucal. Finally, CLASS represents the features associated with nominal classification, such as natural gender, animacy, etc. By this system then, a language which has a pronominal system of three persons and three numbers will be represented by the geometries in (5), with the dual being a result of the simultaneous activation of both the GROUP and the MINIMAL feature values. In (5) we reproduce Harley and Ritter‘s notation of these geometries, followed by the notation as an example.

(5) Geometries of a pronominal system encoding 3 persons and numbers and the paucal

[(PART: SPKR], [INDV: MIN)] [(PART: SPKR], [INDV: GRP)] [(PART: SPKR], [INDV: MIN, GRP)]

[(PART: ADDR], [INDV: MIN)] [(PART: ADDR], [INDV: GRP)] [(PART: ADDR], [INDV: MIN, GRP)]

[INDV: MIN)] [INDV: GRP)] [INDV: MIN, GRP)]

[(PART: SPKR], [INDV: (((MIN)AUGM, GRP)]

A language with a clusivity distinction in the first person will involve the simultaneous activation of the SPEAKER and ADDRESSEE feature values. Santali pronouns are thus captured by the geometries in (5) and (6).

(6) Feature geometries of the clusivity distinction

[(PART: SPKR, ADDR], [INDV: MIN)] [(PART: SPKR, ADDR], [INDV: GRP)]

4.2 A binary feature geometry for Santali pronominals

To begin with, we define possible values of the feature [NUMBER], using two features [±SINGULAR] and [±AUGMENTED]. We take the meaning of [+SINGULAR] to denote an atom x; therefore, the value [-

SINGULAR] means ‗not singular‘.

The plus value of [±AUGMENTED] denotes that whatever properties specified by the other feature that hold of x hold also of some proper subset of x. By contrast, [−AUGMENTED] guarantees that no such subset exists. Thus, when this feature occurs with [+SINGULAR], the value of it will always be [-

AUGMENTED], as given a set with the cardinality of 1, there exists no proper subset that is still

[+SINGULAR]. However, if the feature co-occurs with the feature [-SINGULAR], it may be either

[+AUGMENTED] or [-AUGMENTED], depending on the cardinality of the set involved: if that cardinality is say 100, then the feature will be [+AUGMENTED], but if it is 2, then the value will have to be [-

AUGMENTED], as in the latter case, there exists no proper subset of 2 that still has the property [-

SINGULAR].

In order to capture the trial, the intuition we want to build on is that the trial involves a feature that co- varies with only non-augmented entities, distinguishing between them by the criterion of containing no non-atomic proper subsets. Let us call this feature [±GROUP], and state it to co-vary with the feature ([-AUGMENTED]).

When applied to set of cardinality 1 or 2, this feature will always take the minus value, as there exists no proper subset that is non-atomic. However when applied to a set with a cardinality of 3, it may take the plus value, as there exists at least one proper subset that has a cardinality of more than 1. Singular, plural, dual, and trial can thus be defined as in (7).

(7) Feature specifications of [NUMBER] a. [(+SG, (-AUG, -GRP))] = singular b. [(-SG, (-AUG, -GRP))] = dual c. [(-SG, (-AUG, +GRP))] = trial d. [(-SG, +AUG)] = plural

Turning to [PERSON], we model the feature as using the values [±SPEAKER] and [±ADDRESSEE], as in (8):

(8) Feature specifications of [PERSON] a. [(+SPKR, -ADDR)] = speaker (1st person) b. [(-SPKR, +ADDR)] = addressee (2nd person)

c. [(-SPKR, -ADDR)] = other (3rd person) d. [(+SPKR, +ADDR)] = speaker and addressee (inclusive)

The interaction of [PERSON] and [NUMBER] may now be conceived of as a simple union of the feature values of both features, as in (9):

(9) [PERSON] and [NUMBER] a. [(+SPKR, -ADDR) (+SG, (-AUG, -GRP))] = 1st person singular exclusive b. * [(+SPKR, +ADDR) (+SG, (-AUG, -GRP))] = 1st person singular inclusive c. [(+SPKR, -ADDR) (-SG, (-AUG, -GRP))] = 1st person dual exclusive d. [(+SPKR, +ADDR) (-SG, (-AUG, -GRP))] = 1st person dual inclusive e. [(+SPKR, -ADDR) (-SG, (-AUG, +GRP))] = 1st person trial exclusive f. [(+SPKR, +ADDR) (-SG, (-AUG, +GRP))] = 1st person trial inclusive g. [(+SPKR, -ADDR) (-SG, +AUG)] = 1st person plural exclusive h. [(+SPKR, +ADDR) (-SG, +AUG)] = 1st person plural inclusive

The impossibility of a 1P singular INCL pronominal follows from the incompatibility of the meanings of the feature value SINGULAR with inclusivity: SINGULAR requires the identification of a unique individual. So (9b) is barred, just in the same way as [+AUGMENTED, +SINGULAR] is (an entity or object cannot be one and many at the same time).

Santali is therefore a language whose pronominals illustrate the feature geometries in (2a, c, d, g, h) as it lacks trial number. It is also a language in which contextual agreement features take on all these values, indicating that contextual feature valuation is also by feature bundles of [PERSON] and [NUMBER]. (10) lists the agreement forms of the language:

(10) Santali agreement markers

PERSON SINGULAR DUAL PLURAL

1P EXCLUSIVE -iɲ -liɲ -lɛ INCLUSIVE -laŋ -bon 2P -me -ben -pɛ 3P -e -kin -ko

Note that the proposals in this section are by no means is the only way in which the feature geometry of pronominals can be assembled in a binary system. Another approach could be one that subordinates the [PERSON] feature to the [NUMBER] feature in such a way that feature values of [±SPEAKER,

±PARTICIPANT] would be characterised as predicated of the feature values of [±AUGMENTED]. Our account would then treat represent the feature values of Santali pronominals as follows:

(11) a. Values of [NUMBER] in Santali

i. [+SG, -AUG] = singular

ii. [-SG, -AUG] = dual

iii. [-SG, +AUG] = plural

b. Values of [PERSON] in Santali (Final)

i. [(+SPKR, -ADDR)] = speaker (1st person)

ii. [(-SPKR, +ADDR)] = addressee (2nd person)

iii. [(-SPKR, -ADDR)] = other (3rd person)

iv. [(+SPKR, +ADDR)] = inclusive

b. [NUMBER] and [PERSON] Bundles in Santali (Final)

i. [{(-AUG (+SPKR, -ADDR)), +SG}] = 1P singular

ii. [{(-AUG (+SPKR, -ADDR))}, -SG] = 1P EXCL dual

iii. [{(+AUG (+SPKR, -ADDR)), -SG}] = 1P EXCL plural

iv. [{(-AUG (-SPKR, +ADDR))}, -SG] = 1P INCL dual

v. [{(+AUG (-SPKR, +ADDR)), -SG}] = 1P INCL plural …and so on

5. Clusivity in the Languages of the Subcontinent All the major language families of the subcontinent display clusivity distinctions, although they differ in whether the distinction can be reconstructed to the historical ancestors of the languages.

Of the Indo-Aryan languages, only a few languages show clusivity, but even this cannot be reconstructed to Middle and Old Indo-Aryan, which did not mark clusivity in either nominal inflection or agreement. These languages include Marathi, Gujarati, Marwari, Hadauti and some other

Rajasthani dialects – e.g., in Marathi, aamhii is the 1P EXCL pronoun, whereas aapaɳ is the INCL, and in Marwari, the 1st EXCL is mhe, and the 1P INCL is aapaa. Masica (2001) argues that the appearance of clusivity distinctions are areally influenced and acquired, deriving from contact with the Dravidian family. He notes it to be ―a classic illustration of how such distinctions are acquired: by reshaping the functions of elements existing in a language, in this case, the reflexive‖ (2001: p.254).

In the Austro-Asiatic language family, the distinction is quite widespread. Besides Santali, which we have just examined, the distinction is found in the 1P plural forms of all the languages, as also in those languages that have the 1P dual. Table 1, from Osada (2004), lists the forms attested by

Table 2: Clusivity in Munda (Osada 2004) language, all of which can be traced back to Proto-Munda.

A large number of Tibeto-Burman languages mark clusivity, as a recent survey of 170 languages by LaPolla (2005) shows; however, he also argues that this feature cannot be reconstructed to Proto- Tibeto-Burman or to mid level groupings for any of the languages, except the Kiranti/Rai group. In the modern languages, the distinction is marked by not one, but five distinct strategies (p.305):  Having the same dual/plural marker but different pronouns – e.g. in Karbi/Mikir, the 1P plural

INCL form is e-tum ~ i-tum, and the EXCL is ne-tum, where –tum is the plural marker (–ne is the 1P singular form).  Having the same pronoun but different dual/plural markers, e.g., in Chaudangsi (Krishan 2001)

the same pronoun in- is used but with different plural markers to get the INCL sense. While the 1P

plural EXCL is in-, the 1P INCL plural is formed with the suffixation of an Indo-Aryan loanword meaning ‗all‘-- dʑәmma or lәiri -- to in-.

 Having completely different forms – e.g., in Lower Kinnauri (Sharma 1988), the 1P plural EXCL

form is niŋa, but the 1P EXCL plural form is kasaŋa.  Having a form which is a coalescence of the first person and second-person forms, e.g., in the

Lahu dialect of Thailand (Matisoff 2003), the 1P plural INCL form is created by the addition of the 2P singular pronoun to the normal 1P plural form.

 Adding a special marker to the dual/plural form for INCL or EXCL, as attested by the Kiranti/Rai

language Limbu (van Driem 1999), where 1P EXCL duals and plurals are additionally marked by the morpheme –ge.

The majority of Dravidian languages encode clusivity. As Table 2 (from Steever 1988) shows, clusivity distinctions may be reconstructed to Proto-Dravidian.

Table 1: Clusivity in Dravidian (Steever 1988)

Conclusion In this unit, we have examined how monovalent and binary feature geometries may be constructed for the values of [PERSON] and [NUMBER] features. We have also described the distribution of clusivity distinctions in the major language families of the subcontinent.

References van Driem, G. (1999) ―The Limbu verb revisited.‖ In Y. P. Yadava and W. Glover (eds), Topics in Nepalese linguistics, 209–30. Kathmandu: Royal Nepal Academy. Krishan, S. (2001) ―S etch of Chaudangsi grammar.‖ In R. J. LaPolla (ed.) The Tibeto-Burman languages of Uttar Pradesh, pp. 401–48. Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology. LaPolla, R. (2005) ―The Inclusive-Exclusive Distinction in Tibeto-Burman Languages‖. In E. Filimonova (ed.) Clusivity: Typology and Case Studies on Inclusive/exclusive Oppositions, pp. 289-310. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Masica, C. (2001) ―The definition and significance of linguistic areas: Methods, pitfalls and possibilities (with special reference to South Asia as a linguistic area).‖ In P. Bhaskararao and K.V. Subbarao (eds) The Yearbook of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 2001. 215-267.

New Delhi: Sage Publications. Matisoff, J. A. (2003) ―Lahu.‖ In G. Thurgood & R. J. LaPolla (eds) The Sino-Tibetan languages, pp. 208–21. London: Routledge. Osada, T. (2004) "A Historical Note On Inclusive/exclusive Opposition in South Asian Languages - Borrowing or Retention or Innovation?" The Mon-Khmer Studies Journal, 34: 79-96. Sharma, D. D. (1988) A descriptive grammar of Kinnauri. Delhi: Mittal Publications.

References

Benveniste, E. (1971) ‗The nature of pronouns‘. Problems in general linguistics, p. 217–22. Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press. Forchheimer, P. (1953) The category of person in language. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Kibort, A and G. G. Corbett. (2008) "Number." Grammatical Features. http://www.features.surrey. ac.uk/ features/number.html. Harley, H. and E. Ritter (1992) ‗Person and number in pronouns: a feature-geometric analysis.‖ Language 78.3 (2002) 482-526 Kibort, A. ‗Person.‘ Grammatical Features. 7 January 2008. http://www.features.surrey.ac.uk/features/ person.html.

6.6. ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION 6.6.1. MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS WITH ANSWERS Correct Option Q-1 According to Forchheimer, which of the following serve as evidence for the claim that the THIRD PERSON is not a value of [PARTICIPANT] (1) Many languages lack the third person pronoun (2) In many languages the demonstrative performs the job of the third person pronoun (3) In many languages the third person pronoun is not marked for formality A (1) and (2) B only (2) Correct Answer C (2) and (3) feedback for In many languages, the demonstrative performs correct option the job of the third person pronoun. Also there are languages where the third person pronoun is not marked for formality feedback for Wrong Answer incorrect option

Correct Option Q-2 Following Forchheimer In the sentence, ‗the woman who stole the treasure escaped police custody‘, what is the value of the

[PARTICIPANT] feature for the NP ‗the woman who stole the treasure‘ A 2nd B 3rd Correct Answer C the feature is non-existent for the given NP feedback for the feature is non-existent for the given NP correct option feedback for Wrong Answer incorrect option

Correct Option Q-3 Why is the following combination of the values of the features [PERSON] and [NUMBER] not possible? [(+SPKR, +ADDR) (+SG, (-AUG, -GRP))] Correct Answer A +SPKR, +ADDR and +SG are values that clash B +SPKR, +SG and -AUG are values that clash C +SPKR, +SG and -GRP are values that clash feedback for +SG and +ADDR are values that clash: if the correct option speaker and addressee are both included in the [PERSON] feature then the [NUMBER] feature cannot be one (singular). feedback for Wrong Answer incorrect option

6.6.2 FILL IN THE BLANKS Correct Option Q-1 The following is the feature geometry of the Malayalam 1st person plural pronoun ‗nammaɭ‘

(=RE)

This tells us that ‗nammaɭ‘ is a first person inclusive/exclusive pronoun Correct Answer A inclusive B exclusive feedback for This tells us that ‗nammaɭ‘ is a first person correct option inclusive pronoun feedback for Wrong Answer incorrect option

Correct Option Q-2 If a languages lacks number morphology on the noun this necessarily implies/does not necessarily imply that the nouns in that languages do not have the inherent feature of [NUMBER] A necessarily implies

Correct answer B does not necessarily imply feedback for If a languages lacks number morphology on the correct option noun this does not necessarily imply that the nouns in that languages do not have the inherent feature of [NUMBER] feedback for Wrong Answer incorrect option

6.6.3. TRUE OR FALSE Correct Answer Q-1 All languages of the world have just two values for the [NUMBER] feature: SINGULAR and PLURAL True Correct False Feedback Not all languages of the world have just two values for the [NUMBER] feature

Correct Answer Q-2 All languages of the Austro-Asiatic family display clusivity distinctions Correct True False Feedback All languages of the Austro-Asiatic family display clusivity distinctions

Correct Answer Q-3 A few Tibeto-Burman languages show clusivity and this can be traced back to proto-Tibeto- Burman True Correct False Feedback A few Tibeto-Burman languages show clusivity and but this cannot be traced back to proto- Tibeto-Burman

Correct Answer Q-4 Greater Paucal is a feature value of NUMBER that is dependent on the existence of Paucal Correct True False Feedback Greater Paucal can exist in a language only if Paucal does

6.7. Learn More 6.7.1. Did you know? Description Image Source

Quenya(pronounced [ˈ image source: wɛnja]), a language http://elvenesse.net/ created by fantasy writer blog/silmesse- J.R.R. Tolkien for quenya-poem-set- his Lord of the to-music/ Rings series, has dual nouns (with ‗–t‘ as the dual agreement marker on verbs)

6.7.2 Glossary Starting Term Definition of the Term Related Term Character C class the class feature represents the features associated with nominal classification, such as natural gender, animacy D dual the dual feature value of [NUMBER]quantifies greater paucal, the denotation of the nominal element by paucal, plural, specifying that there are exactly 'two' singular, trial F first person it refers minimally to the speaker(s) or to the speaker(s) combined with the non-participant(s) first person it refers to the speaker and the addressee inclusive I individuation the individuation feature and its values represent number systems G greater the greater paucal feature value of [NUMBER] paucal, plural, paucal specifies that there is a 'small number' of singular, trial, distinct entities which are greater than that dual expressed by the paucal N number the grammatical category which encodes quantification over entities denoted by nouns or nominal elements P participant the participant feature and its values represent person paucal person person marks the distinction between the speaker, the addressee, and others plural the pluralfeature value of [NUMBER] dual, singular, quantifies the denotation of the nominal element paucal, trial, by specifying that there are 'more than one' greater paucal S singular it quantifies the denotation of the nominal dual, plural, element by specifying that there is exactly 'one' paucal, trial, singular T trial it quantifies the denotation of the nominal dual, plural, element by specifying that there are exactly paucal, 'three' singular, greater paucal

6.7.3 Web Links Web Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_person https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obviative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_(grammatical_number) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clusivity http://wap.rdg.ac.uk/web/FILES/english-language-and- literature/elal_LSWP_Vol_4_Doukas_and_Marinis.pdf http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4190995/ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1080/00207598608247610/abstract

6.7.4 Points to Ponder No Points to Ponder 1 Number is an inherent semantic feature 2 In many languages, the absence of number morphology on the noun in a language does not necessarily indicate that its nouns lack the inherent feature of [NUMBER] 3 In a language there has to be a first person inclusive for there to be a first person exclusive but the opposite need not hold 4 All the major language families of the subcontinent display clusivity distinctions, although they differ in whether the distinction can be reconstructed to the historical ancestors of the languages