m-dalusa ‘half’ (for half the number of a group of entities)
7.2 Indefinite quantifiers
7.2.3 Other indefinite quantifiers
In this section, we shall investigate a number of other indefinite quantifiers, and nearly all of them are syntactically verbs.
1. Many/much:
Like classifier markers in numerals, terms for “many/many” are distinguished
between humans and non-humans, as illustrated in (33a) and (33b) respectively.
(33)
a. mazmun ya ni-tayta-an-ku tu sinsi tangi many.HUM NOM NI-see-NMZ-1SG.GEN OBL Teacher today ‘I saw many teachers today.’ (lit. The teachers seen by me today are numerous.)
a. mwaza ya ni-’etung-an-ku tu babuy many.NHUM NOM NI-kill-NMZ-1SG.GEN OBL pig
‘I killed many pigs.’ (lit. The pigs killed by me are numerous.)
2. Few/little:
Similarly, the distinction between humans and non-humans is maintained over terms for “few/little”. Slightly different is the fact that while there is a separate lexical item for non-humans (kiya ‘little’), “few individuals” are expressed by the negated form of mazmun ‘many’, as shown in (34).
(34) a. mai mazmun kaput-ku ta taqsian NEG many.HUM friend-1SG.GEN LOC school
‘I have few friends at school.’ (lit. My friends at school are not numerous.)
b. kiya=ma kelisiw-ku little=MA money-1SG.GEN
‘I have little money.’ (lit. My money is little.)
3. less than/more than
While the notion “less than” is expressed by the negator mai, its counterpart
“more than” is expressed by the verb m-laziw ‘cross, traverse, pass, exceed’, which is spatial in nature. The following examples are illustrative.
(35) a. mai u-lima Rasibu kelisiw-ku
NEG CLF.NHUM-five hundred money-1SG.GEN
‘I have less than five hundred.’ (lit. My money is not five hundred.) b. m-laziw tu u-lima Rasibu kelisiw-ku
AF-exceed OBL CLF.NHUM-five hundred money-1SG.GEN
‘I have more than five hundred. (lit. My money exceeds five hundred.)
4. the same
The notion “the same” is expressed by the verb astaR, which is inflected for Focus, as shown in (36) below.
(36) a. astaR [ni-nanum-su] tu [ni-qan-ku tu Raq]
same NI-drink.water-2SG.GEN OBL NI-eat-1SG.GEN OBL wine ‘You drank the same amount of water as I drank wine.’
b. astaR-an-ku asa na ni-Rasa-ku ya asa na same-LF-1SG.GEN price GEN NI-buy-1SG.GEN NOM price GEN
ni-baliw-ku tu qudus a zau
NI-sell-1SG.GEN OBL clothes LNK this ‘I sold these clothes at the same price as I bought them.’
5. almost/nearly
The notion “almost/nearly” is expressed by the verb ngid, which conveys a number of meanings, including adoration, intention, and future, among others.
Moreover, the numerals have to prefixed by the morpheme qa-, which in this case indicates the speaker’s uncertainty about the exact number/amount of a referent. The points are illustrated in (42).
(37) a. ngid=ti=iku qa-u-siq tasaw mai matiw sa taqsian almost=PFV=1SG.NOM QA-CLF.NHUM-one year NEG AF.go LOC school ‘I have not been to school for almost one year.’
b. ngid=ti=iku qa-u-zusa ‘edan mai q<m>an almost=PFV=1SG.NOM QA-CLF.NHUM-two day NEG <AF>eat ‘I haven’t eaten (anything) for almost two days.’
6. exactly
The notion “exactly” is expressed by the verb semmin, as shown in (43).
(38) semmin kin-lima pataqsian yau mautu exactly CLF.HUM-five student EXIST AF.come
‘Exactly five students came.’ (lit. The students who came are exactly five.)
When the verb semmin is not followed by any numerals, it expresses a sufficient number/amount of a referent, as illustrated in the following examples.
(39) semmin-ika mala baut yau, qa-mai=ti zana kaput-su exactly-NAF.IMP AF.take fish that QA-NEG=PFV 3PL.POSS friend-2SG.GEN ‘Don’t take too many fish (lit. Take exactly as many fish as suffices);
(otherwise)
there won’t be any (left) for your friends.’
(40) A: qa-semmin kin-lima ni?
QA-exactly CLF.HUM-five Q ‘Will five people be enough?’
B: semmin=ti exactly=PFV
‘(That’s) enough.’
7. only
The notion “only” is expressed by the term (wan)=ma, where =ma is an enclitic that roughly conveys something like “nothing more than”. Interestingly, when the relative clause is affirmative, (wan)=ma is used; however, when the relative clause is negative, (wan)=ti=ma is used instead, as illustrated in (41/42a) and (41/42b) respectively.
(41) a. wan=ma ti-buya matiw=ay sa lazing pa-lawis
only=MA NCM-PN AF.go=REL LOC sea PA-fish ‘Only Buya went to the seashore for fishing.’
b. wan=ti=ma ti-buya mai matiw=ay sa lazing pa-lawis only=??=MA NCM-PN NEG AF.go=REL LOC sea PA-fish ‘Only Buya didn’t go to the seashore for fishing.’
(42) a. kin-ausa=ma=imi matiw=ay sa lazing pa-lawis CLF.HUM-two=MA=1EPL.NOM AF.go=REL LOC sea PA-fish ‘Only we two went to the seashore for fishing.’
b. kin-ausa=ti=ma=imi mai matiw=ay sa lazing pa-lawis CLF.HUM-two=??=MA=1EPL.NOM NEG AF.go=REL LOC sea PA-fish ‘Only we two didn’t go to the seashore for fishing.’
Although the function of =ti in this case is unclear for the time being, we found out that the distinction between (wan)=ma and (wan)=ti=ma is quite consistent since our corpus also reveals a similar result, as shown in (43).
(43) a. zana lazing=ay wan=ma zana lazing=ay tamun-ta
3SG.POSS sea=REL only=MA 3SG.POSS sea=REL dish-1IPL.GEN
‘Our dishes are only from the sea.’ (Conv_buya&ngengi, IU 346) b. n wan=ti=ma sayza waRang mai s<m>aRuR nani yes only=??=MA perhaps crab NEG <AF>descend DM
‘Only crabs do not go down(stream).’ (Conv_buya&ngengi, IU 337)
It has to be noted that the term wan=ma always appears right before the contrasted argument, which is always the grammatical subject. Take the sentence
“Imuy gave me fish” for example. Whatever argument is contrasted (Imuy, fish, or me), it surfaces as the grammatical subject and immediately follows wan=ma, as illustrated in (44). This distribution makes (wan)=ma look like an adverb.
(44) a. [wan=ma ti-imui] bula timaiku tu baut only=MA NCM-PN give 1SG.OBL OBL fish
‘Only Imuy gave me fish.’
b. [wan=ma baut] ni-bula-an-na timaiku ni imui only=MA fish NI-give-NMZ-3SG.GEN 1SG.OBL GEN PN
‘Imuy gave me only fish.’ (lit. What Imuy gave me is only fish.) c. [wan=ma aiku] bula-an-na tu baut ni imui only=MA 1SG.NOM give-LF-3SG.GEN OBL fish GEN PN
‘Imuy gave fish only to me.’ (lit. (The one) given fish by Imuy is only me.)
7.0 Conclusion
In this chapter, we have investigated the definite and indefinite quantifiers in Kavalan. Definite quantifiers are mostly numerals, including cardinal, ordinal, multiplicative, distributive, and partitive ones. Of the five types of numerals, only cardinal ones are both nominal and verbal while the others are merely verbal. On the other hand, almost all indefinite quantifiers investigated here are verbs, with only a few exceptions. First, the AF form of UQ (i.e. m-niz) is either a nominal modifier or an adverb since it may form a constituent with nouns or float out of NP boundaries.
Second, the term for “only” (i.e. wan=ma) also looks like an adverb, for the argument highlighted by it is always the grammatical subject.
Moreover, it is also found that the scope interpretation of Universal Quantifier in Kavalan is mostly the grammatical subject, except when the AF form of UQ (i.e.
m-niz) modifies arguments other than the subject. As for the disambiguation between
a collective and distributive reading of UQ, adverbials like masulun ‘together’ andtatungtungus ‘separately’ are required. Alternatively, the schema “nan-X” (where X is
a number) is employed to specify the distributive-share, or the entity being distributed.Considering distributive-share UQ’s are less common across languages, this particular schema is worth exploring in the future.