On Plurals, noun phrase and num(ber) in Moroccan Arabic and Djibouti Somali

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on plural nouns in two Afroasiatic languages: Moroccan Arabic and Djibouti Somali. Within a syntactic approach to word formation, we show that not all plurals are located in the same syntactic position. In Moroccan Arabic, one plural results from the merger of a root with the head n, whereas the other realizes a feature on the number head. In a similar way, Somali displays two suffixal plurals, which realize two distinct syntactic structures. One suffix is associated to numP and behaves as a regular plural suffix; in contrast, the other suffix is analyzed as a bound root that selects for xPs (nP or numP) containing the feminine gender.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 21 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.