| Dual Grammatical Number |
Article Index for Dual |
Website Links For Dual |
Information AboutDual Grammatical Number |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT DUAL GRAMMATICAL NUMBER | |
| grammatical number | |
|
COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS Many languages make a distinction between singular and s, in addition to such singular and plural forms, there is also a dual form, which is used when exactly two people or things are meant. In many languages with dual forms, use of the dual is mandatory, and the plural is used only for groups greater than two. However, use of the dual is optional in some languages such as many modern Arabic dialects including Egyptian Arabic . In other languages such as Hebrew , the dual exists only for a few measure words and for words that naturally come in pairs, such as eyes. In Slovene , strangely, the dual is used for most nouns, but ''not'' for nouns that come in natural pairs; the plural is used instead. Although relatively few languages have the dual number and most have no number or only singular and plural, using different words for groups of two and groups greater than two is not uncommon. , which has no grammatical number, also has words ''dochira'' (which of the two) and ''dore'' (which of the three or more), etc. USE IN MODERN LANGUAGES Among living languages, Modern Standard Arabic has a mandatory dual number, marked on nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns. (First-person dual forms, however, do not exist; compare this to the lack of third-person dual forms in the old Germanic languages.) Many of the spoken Arabic dialects have a dual marking for nouns (only), but its use is not mandatory. Likewise, Akkadian had a dual number, though its use was confined to standard phrases like "two hands", "two eyes", and "two arms". The Inuktitut Language uses dual forms; however, the related Greenlandic Language does not. Austronesian Languages , particularly Polynesian Languages such as Hawaiian , Niuean and Tongan , possess a dual number for pronouns but not for nouns (indeed, they tend not to mark nouns for number at all). Other Austronesian languages, particularly those spoken in the Philippines , have a dual first-person pronoun; these languages include Ilokano (''data''), Tausug (''kita''), and Kapampangan (''ikata''). These forms mean ''we'', but specifically ''you and I''. This form once existed in Tagalog but has largely disappeared, save for certain rural dialects, since the middle of the 20th century. The dual was a standard feature of the Proto-Uralic language, and lives on in Sami Languages and Samoyedic Languages , while other branches like Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian have lost it. Sami also features dual pronouns, expressing the concept of "we two here" as contrasted to "we". Nenets, a Samoyedic language, features a complete set of dual Possessive Suffix es for two systems, the number of possessor and the number of possessed objects (for example, "two houses of us two" expressed in one word). The dual form is also used in several modern Indo-European languages, such as Scottish Gaelic , Slovene and Sorbian (see below for details). The dual was a common feature of all early Slavic languages at the beginning of the second millennium. HEBREW Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew In Biblical , Mishnaic , and Medieval Hebrew, like Arabic and other Semitic Languages , all nouns can have singular, plural or dual formsDual Personal Pronouns and Dual Verbs in Hebrew Gary Rendsburg The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 73, No. 1 (Jul., 1982), pp. 38-58 doi:10.2307/1454459. However, in practice, most nouns use only singular and plural forms. Usually ים is added to Masculine words to make them plural for example ''ספר/ספרים'' "book/books", whilst with Feminine nouns the ה is replaced with ות . For example ''פרה/פרות'' "cow/cows". An example of the dual form is ''יום/ימיים/ימים'' "day/two days/ or more days". Some words occur so often in pairs that what is technically the dual form is in practice used for the general plural, such as ''עין/עינים'' "eye/eyes", used even in a sentence like, "The spider has eight eyes." Sometimes, words can change meaning depending on whether the dual or plural form is used, for example; ''יד'' could mean either "hand" or "handle", but ''ידים'' in the dual form always means hands, whilst ''ידות'' in the plural form means handles. Adjectives, verbs, and pronouns have only singular and plural, with the plural forms of these being used with dual nouns. Modern Hebrew In Modern Hebrew , as used in the State Of Israel , there is also a dual number, but its use is very restricted. The dual form is usually used in expressions of time and number. These nouns have plurals as well, which are used for numbers higher than two, for example: The dual is also used for some body parts, for instance: :רגל (''leg'') → רגליים (''legs'') :אוזן (''ear'') → אוזניים (''ears'') :עין (''eye'') → עיניים (''eyes'') :יד (''hand'') → ידיים (''hands'') In this case, even if there are more than two, the dual is still used, for instance ("a dog has four legs"). THE DUAL IN INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES Linguists have concluded based on an analysis of living and dead languages that a dual can be reconstructed for the Proto-Indo-European Language , which has been preserved in the earliest records of Indo-European Languages . The best evidence for the dual can be found in Sanskrit and the Ancient Greek Language used in Homer ic texts, where its use was obligatory for all inflected categories including nouns, verbs, adjectives, and pronouns. The dual can also be found in Common Slavic and Proto-Germanic languages, as well as Old Irish and Avestan . Based on Sanskrit and the Slavic and Baltic languages, it can be established that the dual in Proto-Indo-European had only three distinct forms: a nominative-accusative-vocative, a dative-ablative-instrumental, and a genitive-locative form. Although the dual can be reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European, it is currently rarely found in any of the daughter languages. The dual is still actively used in Scottish Gaelic dialects, Welsh , Breton , Sorbian , and Slovene . Remnants of the dual can be found in many of the remaining daughter languages, where certain forms of the noun are used with the number two (see below for examples). The dual in Greek The dual can be found in Ancient Greek Homeric texts such as the '' Iliad '' and the '' Odyssey ,'' although its use is only sporadic, owing as much to artistic prerogatives as dictional and metrical requirements within the Hexameter Meter . There were only two distinct forms of the dual in Ancient Greek. In classical Greek, the dual was all but lost, except in the Attic dialect of Athens , where it persisted until the fifth century B.C. Even in this case, its use depended on the author and certain stock expressions. Modern Greek does not have any remnants of the dual. The dual in the Celtic languages Reconstructed Common Celtic nominal and adjectival declensions contain distinct dual forms; pronouns and verbs do not. In Old Irish , nouns and the definite article still have dual forms, but only when accompanied by the numeral ''da'' "two". Traces of the dual remain in Middle Welsh , in nouns denoting pairs of body parts that incorporate the numeral two: e.g. ''deulin'' (from ''glin'' "knee"), ''dwyglust'' (from ''clust'' "ear").1 2 3 |
|
|