Clustering and declustering things : The meaning of collective and singulative derivational morphology in Ukrainian
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
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| Description | Collectives are nominal expressions referring to a collection of entities typically conceptualized as a whole, whereas singulatives are derived unit nouns, i.e., expressions designating a singular object individuated from a plurality perceived as a homogeneous collection of entities. Collective and singulative derivational morphology are attested cross-linguistically, e.g., in Celtic, Semitic, Cushitic, Nilo-Saharan, Algonquian and Slavic, and they are puzzling since they seem to reverse the markedness of the singular/plural distinction (Wierzbicka 1988, Gil 1996, Corbett 2000, Dimmendaal 2000, Mathieu 2014, Acquaviva 2015, Dali & Mathieu 2021, de Vries 2021, Wągiel 2021, Kagan & Nurmio to appear, Kagan et al. to appear). Though recent research revealed the theoretical relevance of various types of collective and singulative formations, certain aspects of their meaning are still not well understood. In this paper, we will examine Ukrainian word formations such as hrad `hail' ~ hrad-yna `a hailstone' and volos `a hair' ~ voloss'-a `hair (as a mass)' and propose an analysis on which the collective morpheme forms a cluster of integrated objects by introducing certain constraints on the spatial configuration of a plurality thereof. On the other hand, the singulative morpheme is an atomizer that selects for an aggregate predicate, i.e., a property of entities prototypically conceptualized as clusters, and turns it into a predicate of discrete singular integrated wholes. |
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