Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of Gurage
AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate how entities are conceptualized and quantified in the Gumer Variety of Gurage, a South Ethiosemitic language. It specifically uncovered the linguistic means used to express quantity and how the quantity expressions interact with a noun head in an NP,...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Cogent Arts & Humanities |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311983.2023.2229086 |
| _version_ | 1797423565670187008 |
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| author | Fekede Menuta |
| author_facet | Fekede Menuta |
| author_sort | Fekede Menuta |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | AbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate how entities are conceptualized and quantified in the Gumer Variety of Gurage, a South Ethiosemitic language. It specifically uncovered the linguistic means used to express quantity and how the quantity expressions interact with a noun head in an NP, the predicate verb, and grammatical categories, such as gender, number, and definiteness. The topic is one of the marginalized areas as we do not find investigation on Gurage languages and most Ethiopian languages. We used a cross-sectional qualitative methodology and a semi-structured key informants interview method. We found that nouns in the Gumer Gurage are not inflected for a number morphologically; thus, bet “house” can be singular or plural. There are, however, lexically distinct plurals (әrʧ “boy” and dengja “boys”; әram “a cow” and әraj “cows”). Numerical quantifiers and definite articles are also used to show plurality. The language distinguishes count and mass nouns semantically but not structurally. The count nouns require measure words in addition to the numeral quantifier as in (sost sin k’awa [three cup coffee “three cups of coffee”]), but not *sost k’awa. Syntactically, a numeral quantifier precedes classifiers, and a head noun follows. A quantifier agrees in number and gender, when the noun is human, with nouns and verbs in a clause. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:48:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6fca7b73e5444ca4874e8f6c2c59ffed |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2331-1983 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T07:48:41Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cogent Arts & Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-6fca7b73e5444ca4874e8f6c2c59ffed2023-12-03T02:14:22ZengTaylor & Francis GroupCogent Arts & Humanities2331-19832023-12-0110110.1080/23311983.2023.2229086Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of GurageFekede Menuta0Department of English Language and Literature, Hawassa University, EthiopiaAbstractThe aim of this study was to investigate how entities are conceptualized and quantified in the Gumer Variety of Gurage, a South Ethiosemitic language. It specifically uncovered the linguistic means used to express quantity and how the quantity expressions interact with a noun head in an NP, the predicate verb, and grammatical categories, such as gender, number, and definiteness. The topic is one of the marginalized areas as we do not find investigation on Gurage languages and most Ethiopian languages. We used a cross-sectional qualitative methodology and a semi-structured key informants interview method. We found that nouns in the Gumer Gurage are not inflected for a number morphologically; thus, bet “house” can be singular or plural. There are, however, lexically distinct plurals (әrʧ “boy” and dengja “boys”; әram “a cow” and әraj “cows”). Numerical quantifiers and definite articles are also used to show plurality. The language distinguishes count and mass nouns semantically but not structurally. The count nouns require measure words in addition to the numeral quantifier as in (sost sin k’awa [three cup coffee “three cups of coffee”]), but not *sost k’awa. Syntactically, a numeral quantifier precedes classifiers, and a head noun follows. A quantifier agrees in number and gender, when the noun is human, with nouns and verbs in a clause.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311983.2023.2229086Gumer GurageQuantity expressionSemanticsSyntax |
| spellingShingle | Fekede Menuta Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of Gurage Cogent Arts & Humanities Gumer Gurage Quantity expression Semantics Syntax |
| title | Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of Gurage |
| title_full | Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of Gurage |
| title_fullStr | Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of Gurage |
| title_full_unstemmed | Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of Gurage |
| title_short | Quantity expressions in the Gumer variety of Gurage |
| title_sort | quantity expressions in the gumer variety of gurage |
| topic | Gumer Gurage Quantity expression Semantics Syntax |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/23311983.2023.2229086 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fekedemenuta quantityexpressionsinthegumervarietyofgurage |