Number

Revision as of 14:22, 14 January 2010

Number is a category that typically corresponds to the actual quantity of the referents of a given noun.

Natural Language

In natural languages, number may be represented by grammatical affixes (such as "s" for plural, in English) or by quantifiers (such as "a couple of", "many", etc). In the UNLarium framework, the grammatical category of number may assume the following values:

{{#tree:id=tagset|openlevels=0|root=Number (NUM)|

• singular (SNG)
  • One member of a designated class.
• plural (PLR)
  • More than one member of a designated class.
• dual (DUA)
  • Two members of a designated class.
• trial (TRI)
  • Three members of a designated class.
• quadrual (QDR)
  • Four members of a designated class.
• paucal (PAU)
  • Few members of a designated class.
• multal (MUL)
  • Many members of a designated class.
• invariant (INV)
  • The word is invariant, i.e., has a single form used both in singular and plural.

UNL

Grammatical number, a morphological grammatical category indicating the quantity of referents

To be represented by attributes, if marked.

person = person
persons = person.@pl
people = people (number lexicalized)

Number attributes

@pl (plural)

books = book.@pl

children = child.@pl

livres = livre.@pl

@paucal (some)

a few books = book.@paucal

some books = book.@paucal

@multal (many)

many books = book.@multal

several books = book.@multal

@all (all)

all books = book.@all

@any (any)

any books = book.@any

@not (no)

no book = book.@not