Onnele number beyond number
Benjamin Pehrson2021, Linguistic Society of Papua New Guinea Conference 2021, SIL-PNG, Ukarumpa EHP PNG, 21-23 September
The Torricelli language of Onnele (ISO 639: onr) includes a remarkable set of strategies to indicate number, and to express other related semantic notions of extendedness and pluractionality that go well beyond the paradigmatic categorization of number. Nominal plurals are rare outside of kinship terms, and the number of any particular referent is generally inferred from context. For object referents, the normative strategy is little interested in precision of count, which stands in stark contrast to the geographically closest Torricelli language of Olo, which includes over fifty subclasses of nouns based on number markings (Staley 15). The Onnele counting system only includes ‘one’ (wokera) and ‘two’ (plainre), and then combines these (e.g. plainrikera ‘three’). Nevertheless, Onnele exhibits over fifteen different strategies to indicate some kind of number. Number is shown in a wide variety of ways among Onnele nouns, adjectives, possessive pronouns, question words, verbs, conjunctions, and pronouns. A compound noun includes each of the singular parts to form the resulting plural complex (e.g. ino ‘younger.brother’ + rani ‘older.brother’ = inrani ‘brothers’). This strategy allows for greater disambiguation than a mere singular/plural distinction, for another construction adds a plural suffix to some kinship terms (e.g. rani ‘older.brother’ + -mpi ‘PL’ = ranimpi ‘older.brothers’). Many kinship terms use different roots for singular and plural (e.g. awa / mokapi ‘mother’s.younger.sister(s)’). A few nouns can show plurality through partial or full reduplication, yet this often shows plurality in the sense of a large degree, or in a distributive sense. The same is true of adjectival suffixes. Possessive pronouns can sometimes indicate the number of the possessed noun, but this is still mostly determined from context. Question words can indicate number (e.g. fina ‘who.SG’, fopi ‘who.PL’). Most verbs are regularly marked with a portmanteau subject agreement morpheme across a paradigm that distinguishes singular and non-singular. Some verbs can also be marked for object number agreement, and these suffixes exhibit the greatest divergence of number-marking concord among the closely related Onnele dialects. The Onnele pronoun system exhibits a complex system of number – almost an open class in its use of the ‘and’-verb to form compound pronouns – in order to track numbered referents among dual forms as well as any other combination of numbered referents (e.g. wuyape ‘3SG.and.2PL’). A verbal prefix yem- conveys some kind of pluractional meaning of reciprocity or coordinated action among its actors, depending on the lexical and contextual constraints. Finally, separate verb lexemes are sometimes used to indicate whether the action is done to one object or to a plurality of them. The semantic category of number is much more complex than simply identifying the singularity or plurality of nouns. Rather, number may include various semantically related notions to plurality across many word classes, and this complexity deserves more attention, as indicated by such recent typological volumes as Storch and Dimmendaal 2014 and Mattiola 2019. For the Onnele data, I need to look further into those nouns that do exhibit nominal plural distinctions and classify them accordingly. Also, some number markings were previously labelled as ‘plural’ when some other kind of extendedness or pluractionality may really be at play (e.g. adjective suffixes). The distinction between ompla ‘thing’ and ommo ‘things’ may really be something other than singular/plural since local speakers frequently use them interchangeably for singular and plural referents. Since this noun can also be used in various senses to indicate ‘food’ and ‘work’, perhaps the distinction is more along the lines of countable vs. uncountable.