number invariance summary several weeks ago posted call help identifying languages nouns may show form number enumerating numerals examples english general allow number invariance include noun head one head cattle two head cattle etc systematically nouns compounded numerals cf twocar garage threebody problem fourweek ins titute fivepage summary sixfoot high summary responses follows please feel free add list take issue summaries thanks patrick farrell tim pulju sources mentioned thanks also res pondents provided following general discussion number invar iance english compounds churma 1983 jets fans raider rooters interaction morphosyntactic processes cls 19 paravolume churma 1987 explaining level ordering parse word bls 13 rijkhoff j 1991 nominal aspect journal semantics 8 4 291309 rijkhoff j 1992 noun phrase typological study form structure doctoral dissertation university amsterdam esp ch 3 1 1 pp 74103 rijkhoff j forthcoming number disagreement proceedings xvth international congress linguists 914 august 1992 quebec canada 1 australian many australian languages show number invariance although generally plural morpheme may affixed nouns used unless required pragmatic considera tions thus pitjantjatjara western desert ngampu egg ngampu marnkurpa three eggs references pitjantja tjara goddard cliff 1993 learner guide pitjantjatjara yankunytjatjara alice springs institute aboriginal development trudinger ronald 1943 grammar pitjantjatjara dialect central australia oceania xiii 3 205223 source rob pensalfini rjpensal mit edu 2 basque nouns indefinite nps behave like possibly turkic languages using invariant form noun numerals examples gizon bat one man bi gizon two men bizkaian gizon bi hiru gizon three men noun plurality may marked however nps containing definite determiners one determiner ordinary definite article suffix examples gizon bata one man rare bi gizonak two men men bizkaian gizon biak hiru gizonak three men three men references la fitte pierre 1944 grammaire basque pp 7678 saltarelli mario 1988 basque p 172 source larry trask larryt cogs susx ac uk 3 celtic welsh perhaps celtic languages cardinal numbers obligatorily take thesingular follow ing noun cf ci og cwn ogs un ci dau gi tri chi pedwar ci pum ci chwe chi saith ci wyth ci naw ci deg ci one dog two dogs ten dogs however alternative partitive construction especially favoured higher numbers get plural pump gwn chwech gwn lit five dogs six dogs welsh grammar book give reliable description references ball ed celtic languages routledge 1993 sources nigel love nlove beattie uct ac za martin j ball mj ball ulst ac uk 4 chaha chaha plural morpheme cf bet one house xwet bet two houses except lexically marked plurals small number nouns cf arc one boy xwet dengya two boys source banksira degif petros d217704 er uqam ca 5 chinese chinese wrote yi tou niu one tou cow tou classifier domestic animals also noun right meaning head source paul woods woodspr osuunx ucc okstate edu 6 choctaw choctaw nouns never marked number cir cumstances number marking diffuse lexical meaning variety nonparallel strategies indicating number value particular nouns source marcia haag haag monk nhn uoknor edu 7 dutch dutch words time intervals like kwartier quarter uur hour always singular maand month jaar year usually remain singular seconde minuut dag ay nacht night week eeuw century take plural morphology two meter centimeter kilometer hectoliter kilo gram frank always remain singular sources bert peeters peeters postoffice utas edu au patricia haegeman fte haegeman p alpha ufsia ac 8 english creole new guinea neomelanesian examples like wan pela man one man lit one fellow man tu pela man two men lit two fellow man similar facts may found underlying local langua ges sources brian drayton brian _ drayton terc edu personal communication anthony arlotto e wayles browne ewb2 cornell edu 9 finno ugric hungarian plural morpheme k yet spite plurals like toll k pencils one says egy toll one pencil ket toll two pencil harom toll three pencil sok toll many pen cil examples kapu gate plural kapuk gates yet hat kapu ix gates finnish works way sources roman agnes aromi eratos erin utoronto ca edith moravcsik edith csd uwm edu 10 georgian generally nouns following cardinal number remain singular measure words used source john peterson gor05 rz unikiel d400 de 11 german gerhard helbig joachim buscha deutsche grammatik says p 528 measure nouns mostly feminines dis tinguish singular plural phrases like eine flas che sekt bottle sparkling wine zwei flaschen sekt list follows die buchse die dose die kiste der krug die schussel der tag die tasse die woche measure nouns mostly neuter keep singular ein stuck zucker drei stuck zucker ein kasten bier drei kasten drei ka sten pl bier likewise das blatt das glas das kilo die mark das meter das paar das pfund der sack original soruce e wayles brown ewb2 cornell edu 12 indic hindi measure time distance mass etc left singular cardinal numbers numbers otherwise common nouns appear plural number measure words used hindi measure time distance mass etc left singular nepali addition common nouns generally left singular one two measure words used janaa humans vataa animals things un doubtedly due tibeto burman influence source john peterson gor05 rz unikiel d400 de 13 indonesian bahasa indonesia although one may pluralise noun reduplication nonspecific form plur al cf kucing cat kucingkucing cats one wanted say five cats would simply lima ekor kucing five classifier cat pretty sure lima ekor kucingkucing would get star give provisional question mark reference mac donald r ross 1976 indonesian reference grammar washington dc georgetown university press source rob pensalfini rjpensal mit edu 14 japanese inflectional morphology nouns thus ex hibits number invariance completely source steve seegmiller seegmiller apollo montclair edu 15 kiribati gilbertese unmarked form bentira pencil used example ai bentira four pencils lit four long unit pencil botaki bentira four groups pencils lit four group pencil source martin silverman mgs unixg ubc ca 16 modern persian afghan variety persian one say yak bacha one brother bacha two brothers se bacha three broth ers char bacha four brothers etc references grammar modern persian also carleton hodge numerous publications descri bing aspects persian structure source charles scott cscott macc wisc edu 17 newari tibeto burman functions like nepali see indic respect main difference newari almost always measure word cardinal number generally nouns denoting living beings plural form reference hans joergensen grammar classical newari copenhagen ejnar munksgaard 1941 det kgl danske videnskabernes selskab hist filol meddelelser xxvii 3 source john peterson gor05 rz unikiel d400 de 18 niger congo bambara c bailleul cours pratique de bambara iii types de phrases imprimerie de la savane bobo dioulasso 1977 mentions cn num c bird et al ka bamanan kalan beginning bambara iulc 1977 say addition al possibility cn num pl def p 43 dogon seems cn num cf kervran prost les parler dogons donno documents linguistiques 16 universite de dakar 1969 source chris culy cculy vaxa weeg uiowa edu 19 semitic semitic often makes statement number nouns regular plurals counting use plural form 10 revert singular hebrew normal time words happen also small group words dual well yom day count yom exad yomayim dual 3 10 shlosha yamim asara yamim usually switch back axadasar yom 11 etc standard arabic counting far messier cases interfering though modern spoken arabics like hebrew nt syntax would allow complression threeday conference type phrase source bob fradkin raf100f oduvm cc odu edu 20 siouan siouan languages mark number verb noun noun plural morphology nouns natur ally invariant numerals numerals sort verb actually languages mark number nps choosing among var ious forms definite article marks positional configur ational gender collections things different configura tion single items different article source john e koontz koontz alpha bldr nist gov 21 turkish turkish perhaps turkic languages plur al inflection ler lar usually omitted numeral marks np plural unless definiteness expressed examples adam man adamlar men men bir adam one man iki adam two men iki adamlar two men men references lewis tur kish grammar clarendon press pp 2526 underhill turkish gram mar mit press sources edith moravcsik edith csd uwm edu steve seegmiller seegmiller apollo montclair edu larry trask larryt cogs susx ac uk e wayles browne ewb2 cornell edu