Nominal plural marking in Kaqchikel

Polina Pleshak
Lomonosov Moscow State University / Institute of Linguistics RAS

Abstract. This paper describes nominal plural marking in Kaqchikel where only a closed set of nouns can bear a dedicated morphological plural marker. Other means are used for disambiguation elsewhere. I concentrate on the diminutive particle taq, which displays properties of non-inflectional plural. I argue that it is not a pure diminutive. Compared to morphological plural, the particle taq is optional, does not trigger obligatory agreement on the adjective and occurs inside compounds. I argue that the particle taq undergoes a shift from a diminutive marker to a plural marker.

Keywords: number, plural, diminutive, inflectional, particle, Kaqchikel, agreement

For citation: Pleshak P. Nominal plural marking in Kaqchikel. Typology of Morphosyntactic Parameters. 2018. Vol. 1, iss. 2. Pp. 100–114.