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The count/mass distinction in Ye’kwana
- Source: Linguistic Variation, Volume 20, Issue 2, Oct 2020, p. 409 - 419
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- 01 Oct 2020
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Abstract
Abstract
This paper presents a description of the count/mass distinction in Ye’kwana, a Cariban language spoken in Brazil and Venezuela. The methodology used was based on Lima & Rothstein’s questionnaire this volume). The data shows that Ye’kwana is a bare noun language and that mass and count nouns can be pluralized. However, numerals need a container phrase in order to be directly combined with mass nouns. Nominal quantifiers wanna and ooje can be directly combined with count and mass nouns, but they show different interpretations.
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