Colloquium with Suzi Lima, University of Toronto

Title:  "Container and shape nouns in Bantu and Mayan languages: Packaging and apportionment"

Abstract: Languages vary in how numerals combine with nouns. Some languages allow numerals to combine directly only with count nouns (two dogs), and require a counting/measure unit with mass nouns (three bags of flour), except in cases of coercion. Other languages allow numerals to combine directly with both count and mass nouns (e.g., maggok-nik sukarak-nik ‘two sugar’ / maggok-nik iKaluk-nik ‘two fish’ [Inuttut; Gillon 2012]). In contrast, classifier languages require a classifier with both count and mass nouns (e.g., ux-p’ej we’tye’ ‘three tables’, cha’-p’ej p’ejty ja’ ‘two pots of water’ [Ch’ol; Little et al. 2022]). In this presentation, I provide a descriptive account of numeral constructions in three Bantu languages (Kirundi, Kinyarwanda, and Tshiluba) – noun class prefixes languages – and two Mayan languages (Q’anjob’al and Ixil) – numeral classifier languages –, focusing primarily on differences in the distribution of container nouns (such as glass in three glasses of water) and shape nouns (such as puddle in three puddles of water). Specifically, I show how these nouns, in both language families, help elucidate the distinction between the well-known and described phenomenon of packaging (coercion, or the universal packager, cf. Pelletier 1975, a.o.), in which a conventionalized container is omitted from a Num + mass noun construction, and the more under-studied phenomenon of apportionment (free portion, cf. Krizman et al. 2015), in which shape nouns are omitted in numeral constructions (Num + mass noun).