Abstract
While much work has been done on the description of the mass/count distinction in different geographical areas, Brazilian Indigenous languages are still highly underrepresented in the field. This paper presents the results of a project that involved researchers describing the mass/count distinction in 15 Brazilian Indigenous languages, based on a questionnaire we prepared in 2016 in order to explore the distribution of bare nouns, plurals, numerals, and quantifiers (see Appendix). Three main observations will be drawn. First, number marking and countability are independent. Second, counting is not restricted to natural atoms. Third, since there seems to be no systematic symmetry in the distribution of plurals, numerals, and quantifiers, we argue that the standard diagnostics for countable vs. non-countable nouns are highly language-specific.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 174-218 |
| Number of pages | 45 |
| Journal | Linguistic Variation |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Oct 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Funding
Susan Rothstein’s trip to Brazil for the workshop “A typology of count, mass and number in Brazilian languages” as well as the payment of the proofreader of the papers, Emily Judds, were financed by the Israel Science Foundation. Susan Rothstein’s accommodation in Brazil was partially financed by the Graduate Program in Linguistics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. We would like to thank all of the researchers who have used (or are currently using) our questionnaire. We would like to thank the researchers and the speakers of the communities involved in this project and whose findings are reported in this volume: Ana Paula Quadros Gomes, Ana Vilacy Galucio, Anari Bonfim, Andr?s Pablo Salanova, Andrew Nevins, Aronaldo Julio, Bernat Bardagil, Bruna Franchetto, Carla Nascimento Costa, F?bio Bonfim Duarte, Filomena Sandalo, Guillaume Thomas, Gustavo Godoy, Helena Guerra Vicente, Isabella Coutinho Costa, Luciana Sanchez-Mendes, Luciana Storto, Marcus Vin?cius Lunguinho, M?rio Coelho da Silva, Pilar Chamorro, Roberta Pires de Oliveira, Walter Alves, Wendy Mary Leandro. We would like the Museu do ?ndio for hosting the workshop we organized ?A typology of count, mass and number in Brazilian languages? to discuss the results of this project, in 2018. More particularly, we would like to thank Carlos Levinho (director of the Museu do ?ndio then) and Bruna Franchetto, scientific coordinator of the ProDocLin (Program for the Documentation of Indigenous Languages). We would like to thank Peggy Li and Brianne Gallagher for preparing some of the pictures used in the questionnaire. We also would like to thank Diane Massam and Henry Davis for their comments on this introduction and Carrie Gillon for proofreading it. We also would like to thank Emily Judds for proofreading the papers presented in this volume. We are also thankful to Jeroen Van Craenenbroeck for first accepting our proposal to Linguistic Variation (and Luciana Storto for putting us in touch with Jeroen) and Hedde Zeijlstra, the current general editor of Linguistic Variation, for all his help and support. We would like to thank all of the reviewers. Last and not least, Suzi Lima would like to thank Susan Rothstein and to dedicate this volume to her. All usual disclaimers apply.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Hedde Zeijlstra | |
| Susan Rothstein | |
| Israel Science Foundation | |
| Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro |
Keywords
- Atomicity
- Brazil
- Count nouns
- Mass nouns
- Numerals
- Plurals
- Quantifiers