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38: Many ways to talk about many things - Plurals, duals and more
🕑 Added 2019-11-21 23:59:47 +0000 UTCIn English you have one book, and three books. In Arabic you have one kitaab, and three kutub. In Nepali it’s one kitab, and three kitabharu, but sometimes it’s three kitab.
In this episode of Lingthusiasm, Gretchen and Lauren look at the many ways that languages talk about how many of something there are, ranging from common distinctions like singular, plural, and dual, to more typologically rare forms like the trial, the paucal, and the associative plural. (And the mysterious absence of the quadral, cross-linguistically!)
It’s also our anniversary episode! We’re celebrating three years of Lingthusiasm by asking you to share your favourite fact you’ve learnt from the podcast. Share it on social media and tag @lingthusiasm if you’d like us to reshare it for other people, or just send it directly to someone who you think needs a little more linguistics in their life.
For links and more go to https://lingthusiasm.com/post/189218282891/lingthusiasm-episode-38-many-ways-to-talk-about
Comments
Lingthusiasm
Yup, there are so many great aspects of pluralization that we couldn't fit them all in, and that's one of them!
Axel Herrera
Great episode! I remember learning about the different methods of pluralization as well as the different "numbers" (dual, paucal, etc.) found in the world's languages when I studied linguistics in college. One thing I was hoping you'd mention, though, is what languages do when there is none (zero) of something. English uses the plural: one book, zero/no books (in this sense, perhaps, the plural isn't just "more than one" as much as it's "not one").
