reduplication will mark number that is "out of the ordinary" and
thus specified, and marked by morphological material, in contrast
with number which is not usually specified.
r e d u p l i c a t i o n [9]. I comp a r e d the types of n o m i n a l s (mostly,
w i t h a few notable exceptions, 'nouns' and not 'adjectives')
w h i c h could take r e d u p l i c a t i o n w i t h a n u mber m a r k i n g f unction and
those w h i c h took other types of number marking, w h e t h e r by
m o r p h o l o g i c a l or s y n t a c t i c means. It is s i g n i f i c a n t that in all
cases these languages h a d some other mea n s of n u m b e r m a r k i n g on
N P s . The r e s u l t s s h o w e d some c o n n e c t i o n b e t w e e n re d u p l i c a t i v e
ve r s u s n o n - r e d u p 1icative nu m b e r m a r k i n g m o r p h o l o g y and various
s e m a n t i c fields.
The sema n t i c range of nouns in a language w i t h w h i c h
r e d u p l i c a t i o n m a y occ u r is gen e r a l l y quite restricted. In the
s u r v e y of t w e n t y - n i n e A u s t r a l i a n languages, of w h i c h thir t e e n are
n oun class languages, f o u r t e e n languages (eight of these w ith
noun classes) e x h i b i t e d nominal r e d u p l i c a t i o n m a r k i n g the
'significant plural' f u n c t i o n d e s c r i b e d above, r e s t r i c t e d to
H U M A N nouns only. In Lardil, for example, the cases of
r e d u p l i c a t i o n atte s t e d occur only w i t h H u m a n nouns. Moreover,
plurals m a y be f o r m e d by r e d u p l i c a t i o n of the entire noun stem, but this is m a rginal and the forms are rare in use. Normally, a nominal, apart f r o m a pronoun, is not m a r k e d for number. (Klokeid 1976:66).
On the subject of nu m b e r in noun class languages, we m a y note the
f o l l o w i n g comments f r o m Fri g o 1989, based on a s u r v e y of five
n o n - P a m a - N y u n g a n noun class languages: Gunwinggu, Mangarayi,
N g a n d i , Ungarinyin, and Yanyuwa.
In some g rammars a d i v i s i o n has been made b e t w e e n human and non - h u m a n in nouns w h i c h share the same class
prefix. This d i v i s i o n is made on the basis that only nouns w h i c h refer to hu m a n s take a d i f f e r e n t p refix in
the plural. In some grammars these plural forms have been analysed as separate classes. (1989:9)
Thus, for example in L a r d i 1 (a non-noun-class language), the reduplicated terms are human terms, such as:
2.1. L a r d i 1 (Klokeid 1973) marun
marunmarun
b o y boys
However, sometimes only a subset of all human nouns can be subject to reduplication. This case obtains in Mara, a noun class language, where "certain human nouns form a (3+) plural by reduplication" (Heath 1981:24). 2.2. Mara (Heath 1981) j awulba j awu-yawulba nj iwa njiwa-njiwa old person old people widow widows
The word for man, however, does not follow this pattern: 2.3. Mara (Heath 1981)
gariyi-mar man
gariyi-0 men
and is in fact counter-iconic (Mayerthaler 1988), since the marker of what appears to be number is zero in the non-singular
case .
Stem internal changes for number in Mara, whether by
reduplication as in 2.2 above, or by other means (2.3) seem to be restricted to human terms. In addition to reduplication as a
number marker. Mara has five noun classes. Masculine, Feminine, Neuter, Dual and Plural, all marked by prefixes to the noun root. Only human nouns tend to be marked by Dual and Plural prefixes.
If a stem is already marked for number by reduplication, it may still be prefixed. Terms which take a 'generic' interpretation
are the most commmon exemplars of this. Non-human nouns are mainly found in the masculine class, but some terms for higher
animates distinguish male and female (eg. euro), in which case the female term will be a member of the feminine class. As noted
above, non-human forms tend not to occur marked Dual or Plural by prefixation, even when the referent is non-singular. Numerals
are usually used if explicit number reference is required (Heath 1981:73).
Reduplication in Mara is not entirely restricted to human age- status terms. Reduplication may also occur with a small set of terms referring to topography. In these instances it also marks plurality, in the sense of an "indefinite large number".
2.4-. Mara (Heath 1981:24)
rjargu-gargu bill abongs
lulga-lulga [10] islands
In Kalkatungu, a non-classifying language, reduplication appears to be restricted to human terms, and in this case reduplication clearly sets off nouns from adjectives. Compare the two forms below, where the first is a noun and the second is an adjective,
and the meaning differences reflect a difference in semantic
structure according to the noun class to which each form belongs. 2.5. Kalkatungu (Blake 1979a:94)
kujiri
kuj i-kuj iri