Number and Gender Convergence: The Arabic Plurative

Abstract

Morpho-syntactic and semantic properties of a specific plural/collective construction in Arabic, which I call the plurative, are examined and analysed. The plurative is shown to be a complex third entity, resulting from a convergence process of both Number and Gender features (and/or categories). It behaves as a syntactic expression denoting groups, which exhibits dual behaviour, licensing plural or single predication, anaphora, or alternating a feminine-singular with a masculine-plural agreement. In its strict sense, the plurative is shown to be both ‘one’ and ‘many’, denoting the whole-unity, but also allowing access to the (many) parts. Comparison is made with Slavic group numerals, as well as languages possessing group classifiers like Chinese. The singulative is also argued to be a complex entity, compared to kind collectives and normal singulars. DivP turns out to be too coarse to account for fine individuation differences, and is better split as atomP and unitP.

Keywords

• plurative
• convergence
• singulative
• group collective
• group classifier
• group numeral