Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Kultur-, Sozial- und Bildungswissenschaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Asien- und Afrikawissenschaften

This presentation aims at analyzing the morphosyntactic features of transnumeral nouns in Foodo, a Guang language spoken in Benin. Foodo has a very productive, elaborated system of nominal classification, consisting of 10 nominal form classes and 10 agreement classes (Plunkett 2009). Nearly all of these classes host transnumeral nouns, challenging former descriptions of just one class for mass nouns in Niger-Congo languages. The investigation is based on the lexical database compiled by Gray Plunkett from 1994 to 2007. It consists of about 2.300 entries, with around 1.500 nominal concepts, and is accompanied by field notes of the author. We will first analyze how transnumeral nouns, i.e. nouns without inherent number differentiation, fit morphosyntactically into the nominal classification system of the language. Second, we will investigate how the great distribution over all classes can be explained, and whether there is a common semantic denominator unifying nouns differentiated for number and transnumeral nouns. This is especially interesting for class 5 nouns, as this class contains a good number of transnumeral nouns, but serves at the same time as class unitizing masses, as in (1), thus resulting sometimes in nominal triplets:

(1) ɩ̀-ŋmá-m ‘hair’ (mass noun)
dɩ̀-ŋmáḿ.bí-lí / à-ŋmáḿ.bé-é ‘single hair / single hairs’

Further, on the basis of Grimm’s (2018) ‘scale of individuation’ we will explore how transnumeral nouns in Foodo can be semantically classified, e.g. as mass nouns, collectives, abstract nouns, verbal nouns etc., and whether there is a direct reflex of this classification in their morphosyntactic marking. This in-depth analysis will allow for a better understanding of similar observations in other Guang languages as well as languages of the wider Niger-Congo family, and will shed light on the original semantics underlying nominal classification systems.