Notes on Number and Agreement

Number in the Noun Paradigm

In our discussion of number marking in Turkish we observed that, although there are certain morphemes which encode plurality in meaning such as {-Iz}(ikiz, üçüz), {-gil}, and {-at} (baharat, erat), Turkish basically makes a distinction between one vs. more than one through the use of the plural morpheme, {-lAr}. To understand the function of the plural mopheme better, we first need to observe the semantic properties of nouns. In this respect, a first observation would be that nouns in Turkish exhibit the properties of being either count, non-count (mass), or collective nouns. We also observed that they may refer to concrete or abstract concepts.

Count and non-count nouns in Turkish

Like English, Turkish distinguishes between count and non-count nouns. Non-count nouns can be concrete, mass nouns such as pirinç, tuz, şeker. Non-count, concrete nouns do not pluralise unless to indicate type or some other semantic distinctions. Compare

1 a elektriğimiz yok b elektrikler kesildi

2 a suyumuz yok/*sularımız yok b sular kesik

4 a kar eridi b karlar eridi

5 a saçımı yıkadım b saçlarımı yıkadım

6 a soğuk su içtim b soğuk sular içtim

7 a peynir bozulmuş b Fransa’nın peynirleri meşhurdur

(Note that English and Turkish differs in terms of usage of certain non-count nouns. For example, hair cannot be pluralised in the sense of (4b) above)

The presence of the plural marker in 1b-4b, might be explained as an extension of the description of the state; however, it certainly is the case that examples like 1b-3b and 5b have become fairly idiomatic expressions in Turkish.

Now let us examine the case in 6. Discussing usages similar to 6b (‘soğuklar sebebiyle şehrin su boruları patlamıştır’), Lewis (1967), remarks that such plurals indicate ‘specific instances’ of the concept or entity. Thus, 6b expresses several instances of drinking cold water. This particular usage is connected to the way...