Monday, June 15, 2015

Detail #174: Congruence as Precision-marker with Numerals

In Russian, precision is marked by postposing the number:
ten cars = ten cars
cars ten = about ten cars

Other strategies are possible for the same kind of thing: having approximate numerals derived from the regular ones, having a particle ('about ten'), etc. However, in a language with lots of congruence going on, some exceptional congruence thingy could be a reasonable approach.
ten.PL.CASE car.PL.CASE = ten cars
ten.SG.CASE = about ten cars
However, another possibility could be to actually have no number marking in the usual construction:
ten.SG.CASE car.SG.CASE = ten cars
ten.PL.CASE car.SG.CASE = about ten cars
The latter is not all that far from how Finnish constructs 'tens of', 'hundreds of', etc - although with those, you get
ten.PL.CASE car.PL.CASE
whereas Finnish usually - with a few exceptions - does
ten.SG.CASE car.SG.CASE
(except with nom / acc where ten.SG.CASE car.SG.PART happens). Finnish also has its plurale tantum words - words without singular forms - take plural congruence on its numbers, so '(exactly or approximately) ten parties' is constructed the same way 'tens of cars' is.

Another could of course be to have an indefinite (~singular) article precede the number:
a ten cars
This actually happens in some colloquial varieties of Swedish.
 

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