Detail #143: More Subtle Inverse Number

Inverse number as described in detail #141 could be done in some more subtle way:

Have morphological number on nouns follow a regular system, but have object number congruence follow an inverse system:

pərəŋ-ga lixr-wi d-gu-miť-ig : the men have picked the fruit

pərn = man, (class I, 'primarily singular'), -ga = plural definite nominative class I

lixr = fruit (class II, 'primarily plural'), -wi = accusative class II

miť = pick, gather, harvest

 d- = object is its typical number, -gu- = plural class I subject, -ig = past tense perfect

 lixr-pe pərəŋ-žu d-pu-xxan-ig : a fruit poisoned the man

-xxan- = to poison, cause sickness, d- = object has typical number, -pu = singular class II subject

-pe = singular indefinite nominative class II, -žu = class I accusative

In this case, I've gone so far as to omit number altogether in the accusative case marking (whereas other cases will retain plural marking), but having the verb mark for number in a way that differs from the singular marking is not entirely impossible.

In fact, Georgian distinguishes 'semantic number' from 'syntactic number', and marks for both on occasion. Nouns with a numeral are always in singular form, and therefore have singular verb congruence - but some verbs have suppletive roots for  any semantically plural nouns. Thus, it has verbs that simultaneously agree with the subject in two opposite ways  - singular and plural. The system given above would seem to be, in fact, less out there than the Georgian system.