Plurality and Gender Polarity in Somali

Morgan Nilsson morgan.nilsson@gu.se

Department of Languages and Literatures

University of Gothenburg, Sweden

Aim To show that the notion of Gender Polarity is not necessary in Somali

in order to explain the shape of the definite article

or the agreement patterns.

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Roadmap

I will

• present the traditional view on gender in Somali;

• give the main arguments in favour of Gender Polarity;

• discuss the principles governing the form of the definite article;

• discuss the principles governing the agreement patterns;

• present a simplified view on gender in Somali.

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Gender Polarity is the standard point of view Berchem, J. 2012. Referenzgrammatik des Somali. Norderstedt. Hetzron, R. 1972. Phonology in syntax. Journal of Linguistics 8 (2). 251-265. Lecarme, J. 2002. Gender "Polarity": Theoretical Aspects of Somali Nominal

Morphology. Many Morphologies. Ed. Boucher & Plénat. Somerville. 109-141. Moreno, M.M. 1955. Il somalo della Somalia. Roma. Orwin, M. 1995. Colloquial Somali. London. Puglielli & C.C. Mansuur. 1999. Barashada naxwaha af Soomaaliga. London. Puglielli, A. & C.C. Mansuur. 2012. Qaamuuska Af-Soomaaliga. Roma. Pullum, G.K.. 1985. Logic, Syntax, and Grammatical Agreement. Proceedings of '84

Matsuyama Workshop on Formal Grammar. Ed. Kubo. Tokyo University of Science. 125-152.

Pullum, G.K. & A.M. Zwicky. 1983. Phonology in Syntax: The Somali Optional Agreement Rule. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 1:3. 385-402.

Saeed, J.I. 1993. Somali Reference Grammar. Kensington. Saeed, J.I. 1999. Somali. Amsterdam.

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Main arguments for Gender Polarity • The form of the definite article suffix.

• Agreement patterns with certain nouns.

• A general trait in Cushitic languages.

Gender Polarity Basic facts – The traditional view

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The exponents of definiteness in Somali nouns. Realisation depends on stem final phoneme. {k} is realised as /k/, /g/, /h/ or zero. {t} is realised as /t/, /d/ or /š/.

Examples Fem. sg. indef. & def. Masc. pl. indef. & def. sabab ‘reason’ sababta sababo sababaha mindi ‘knife’ mindida mindiyo mindiyaha

Masc. sg. indef. & def. Fem. pl. indef. & def. gambar ‘stool’ gambarka gambarro gambarrada derbi ‘wall’ derbiga derbiyo derbiyada

Masc. sg. indef. & def. Masc. pl. indef. & def. miis ‘table’ miiska miisas miisaska

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Agglutinative: sabab -a -h -a reason-PL-DEF-ABS

Stress-tone gender distinction

Masculine nouns have stress-tone on the second last mora of the stem.

ínan ‘a boy’ ínanka ’the boy’

Feminine nouns have stress-tone on the last mora of the stem.

inán ‘a girl’ inánta ’the girl’

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The 5th declension

5th declension nouns have no overt plural morpheme. They exhibit “pure” gender polarity.

indef. def.

singular. díbi ‘ox’ díbiga masculine

plural dibí dibída feminine

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Gender from a typological point of view • Gender is ”reflected in the behavior of associated words”.

(Hockett 1958: 231)

• ”The relevant ’reflection’ in the associated words is agreement […]. No amount of marking on a noun can prove that the language has a gender system; the evidence that nouns have gender values in a given language lies in the agreement targets which show gender.” (Corbett 2013: 89f.)

Exponents of agreement in Somali

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Morphologically assigned plural definite article

• Feminine nouns (in the singular) – All nouns take the definite morpheme {k} in the plural.

• Masculine nouns (in the singular) – The vast majority take the definite morpheme {t} in the plural. – Only those with a monosyllabic stem take {k} in the plural.

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The simpler view exemplified

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Fem. sg. indef. & def. Fem. pl. indef. & def. sabab ‘reason’ sababta sababo sababaha mindi ‘knife’ mindida mindiyo mindiyaha

Masc. sg. indef. & def. Masc. pl. indef. & def. gambar ‘stool’ gambarka gambarro gambarrada derbi ‘wall’ derbiga derbiyo derbiyada

Masc. sg. indef. & def. Masc. pl. indef. & def. miis ‘table’ miiska miisas miisaska geed ‘tree’ geedka geedo geedaha guri ‘house’ guriga guryo guryaha

The second argument: Agreement variation Díbi-g-u waa uu tagay-aa. ‘The ox is going away.’ ox-M.SG.DEF-SUB DECL PRO.3.M.SG go.away-PRET.3.M.SG

Dibí-d-u waa ay tagay-aan. ‘The oxen are going away.’ ox-F.PL.DEF-SUB DECL PRO.3.PL go.away-PRET.3.PL

Dibí-d-u waa ay tagay-saa. ‘The oxen are going away.’ ox-F.PL.DEF-SUB DECL PRO.3.PL go.away-PRET.3.F.SG

PRO.3.F.SG

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Feminine !? There actually is something quite feminine about the form dibída ‘oxen’:

- Typically feminine stress-tone; - Definite article {t}.

It is also interesting that this form shows - No overt plural morpheme; - Agreement in the plural or in the feminine singular.

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Agreement variation

The literature reports this effect with - 5th declension nouns exhibiting “pure” polarity, e.g. díbi-ga ‘the ox’ pl. dibí-da

(a couple of dozens of words)

- Arabic plurals: kitaab-ka ‘the book’ pl. kutub-ta macallin-ka ‘the teacher’ pl. macallimiin-ta

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Any other nouns with varying agreement? Several other nouns exhibit varying agreement, i.e. singular or plural.

Many nouns also exhibit variation between the plural and the masculine singular.

The general pattern is that – nouns triggering variation lack an overt Somali plural morpheme;

– nouns with an overt Somali plural morpheme do not exhibit any variation, they always trigger agreement in the plural.

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Typology on varying agreement in number Variation in agreement between the singular and the plural is typologically common in a diversity of languages, e.g.

Laget kom in på planen inställtsg. / inställdapl. på att vinna. (Swedish) ’The team entered the playground determined to win.’

The standard is high, the team is / are friendly and it's fabulous value for money. Corbett (2000:187) distinguishes between syntactic agreement determined by the form and semantic agreement determined by the meaning. Typologically, certain types of nouns typically trigger such variation.

Somali fits neatly into these patterns. 18

Collective nouns Corbett (2000: 118f.) uses the term collective to indicate that a noun is “referring to a group of items considered together rather than a number of items considered individually. […] The primary function of collectives is to specify the cohesion of a group”.

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The 5th declension & Arabic plurals Both these types of nouns exhibit regular plural forms besides the irregular “plural” forms. I propose that the latter should be interpreted as collective forms:

Masculine sing. díbi, díbiga Masculine plur. dibiyo, dibiyada Feminine sg. coll. dibí, dibída

Masculine sing. macallin, macallinka Masculine plur. macallimmo, macallimmada Feminine sg. coll. macallimiin, macallimiinta

E.g. in a well known Somali folk story, the regular plural dibiyada is used when referring to the three main characters, but the collective dibída when talking about all the oxen in the flock.

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Collectives with agreement variation Baabuurtu waa ay noocyo badan yihiin Car.COLL-F.DEF-SUBJ DECL PRO.3.PL types many be.PRES.3.PL

‘There are cars of many types.’

Baabuurtu waa ku badan tahay. Car.COLL.SUBJ DECL in many is.F.SG

The cars are numerous there. Dhammaan waa dhir yaryar. All DECL plant.COLL PL.small ‘All are small plants.’

Dhirta caleenteeda dadku cuno. plat.COLL.DEF leaves.POSS.F.SG.DEF people.DEF.SUBJ eat ‘Peoples eat the leaves of the plants.’

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More collectives; many feminines fem. coll. beeraleyda ‘the farmers’ fem. coll. dhallinyarada ‘the youngsters’ fem. coll. carruurta ‘the children’ fem. coll. lo’da ‘the cattle’ fem. coll. dhirta ‘the plants’

masc. coll. dadka ‘the people’

fem. sg. naagta ‘the woman’, pl. naagaha ‘the women’ masc. coll. dumarka ‘the women’

masc. sg. ninka ‘the man’, pl. nimanka ‘the men’ masc. coll. ragga ‘the men’

fem. coll. haweenka ’the women’ fem. sg. haweenayda ’the woman’

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Collectives derived by change to feminine gender masc. sg. dibiga ‘the ox’ pl. dibiyada ‘the oxen’ fem. coll. dibida ‘the oxen’

masc. sg. baabuurka ‘the car’ pl. baabuurrada ‘the cars’ fem coll. baabuurta ‘the cars’

masc. sg. buugga ‘the book’ pl. buugagga ‘the books’ fem. coll. buugta ‘the books’

masc. sg. tuugga ‘the thief’ pl. tuugagga ‘the thieves’ fem. coll. tuugta ‘the thieves’

masc. sg. askariga ‘the soldier’ pl. askariyada ‘the soldiers’ fem. coll. askarta ‘the soldiers’

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Corporate nouns Corbett (2000: 188) uses the term ’corporate’ nouns for “nouns which are singular morphologically and (typically) have a normal plural and yet, when singular, may take plural agreement”.

- This type is quite common in Somali. - It includes both masculine and feminine nouns, e.g. qoys ‘family’, qoyska, pl. qoysas, qoysaska koox ‘group, team’ kooxda, pl. kooxo, kooxaha geel ‘herd of camels’ geela, pl. geelal. geelasha Faarax qoys-k-iis-u waxa ay dhaqd-aan geel. Faarax family-DEF-POSS.3.SG.M-SUBJ FOCUS PRO.3.PL breed-PRES.3.PL camel.COLL ’Faarax’s family breeds camels.’

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Singular nouns with generic meaning

The singular is used to refer to the whole class of objects.

Cf. The tiger is in danger of becoming extinct. Tigers are in danger of becoming extinct. Somali uses the definite singular form to express generic meaning. The agreement pattern is generally plural. Diin-k-u inta badan ma sameey-aan wax dhaqdhaqaaq ah. Turtle-DEF.M.SG-SUBJ amount much not make-PRES.3.PL thing movement being. ‘For a long period of time turtles don’t make any movements.’

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Singular nouns with associative meaning

Associative usage of names triggering plural agreement in order to indicate the inclusion of members of the family or other group.

This agreement type is not so frequent, and it seems only to involve the possessive suffix.

Y-aa dhis-ay Faarax aqal-k-ooda? Who-FOC build-PRET Faarax house-DEF-POSS.3.PL ‘Who built Faarax’s family’s house?’

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Conclusions Somali exhibits no plural gender distinction in exponents of agreement Therefore - no need to refer to the gender of a noun in the plural (or, even worse, to change the gender of a noun in the plural). Variation in agreement is not an effect of Gender Polarity, but a common pattern in Somali due to conflicting syntactic and semantic agreement with singular collective nouns, singular corporate nouns, singular nouns used to express generic meaning, singular nouns used with an associative meaning.

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The traditional view Gender Polarity

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The exponents of definiteness in Somali nouns.

The proposed view Exponent Polarity

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The exponents of definiteness in Somali nouns.

References

Corbett, G.G. 1991. Gender. Cambridge. Corbett, G.G. 2000. Number. Cambridge Corbett, G.G. 2006. Agreement. Cambridge. Corbett, G.G. 2013. Gender typology. The expression of gender. Ed.

Corbett. Berlin. Hockett, C.F. 1958. A course in modern linguistics. New York.

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