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A typology of the mass/count distinction in Brazil and its relevance for mass/count theories
Edited by Suzi Lima and Susan Rothstein
[Linguistic Variation 20:2] 2020
► pp. 398–408

The nominal system in Wapishana (Aruák), preliminary results

| Universidade de Brasília
| Universidade Federal Fluminense
| Universidade Federal do Paraná | Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina | Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
| Universidade de Brasília
| University of Guyana
The aim of this paper is to provide a preliminary investigation into the nominal system of Wapishana, focusing on the count vs. mass distinction, which is grammatically encoded in this language. Evidence for this distinction can be identified in the constraints imposed by the presence of numerals, number marking, and quantifiers. Nouns such as wyn ‘water’ do not combine with numerals, whereas other words such as baydkury ‘jaguar’ do. The suffixation of the morpheme -nau/-nhau to express plurality seems to be optional and may even be blocked by the presence of numerals. The language exhibits specialized quantifiers for count, liquid, and non-liquid mass nouns.
Keywords: Wapishana, count, mass, number, quantifiers
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Numerals and -nau/-nhau
  • 3.Quantifiers
  • 4.Final remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.00029.gue
References (10)
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