Work

The semantics of plural morphology in Akan

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: With initial native speaker judgements suggesting an exclusive plural morpheme in downward entailing contexts in Akan, as reported by Ahenkorah (2022), this research seeks to test these claims through experimental means and to provide a more comprehensive picture of Akan’s plural semantics. The current literature on exclusive and inclusive plurals focuses mainly on English, with some investigation of Western Armenian, Turkish, and Korean (Bale & Khanjian 2008; Renans et al. 2017; Kang 1994: a.o.). These languages have drawn intrigue due to their unmarked form behaving number neutrally, while English’s unmarked form is specified for atomicity. Akan, which marks both singulars and plurals morphologically makes for an interesting addition to this discussion. Ahenkorah (2022) claims that the plural circumfix, used to mark kinship terms, is inclusive, similarly to English, but that the prefix, which is used for most nominals, is exclusive. The present experiments test these two plural morphemes in multiple downward entailing contexts to obtain the full picture of their meanings. The results of the two experiments show that both the plural prefix and plural circumfix have an inclusive reading in downward entailing contexts. Furthermore, this provides evidence that the plural circumfix is not a circumfix at all, but is two separate morphemes: a plural prefix and kinship suffix.

Source: Glossa a journal of general linguistics

DOI: 10.16995/glossa.17580

Author: Madeline Ladore

Institution: University of Göttingen

Language: English

Topic: Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $551

Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft