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Linguistic Categories, Language Description and Linguistic Typology
Edited by Luca Alfieri, Giorgio Francesco Arcodia and Paolo Ramat
[Typological Studies in Language 132] 2021
► pp. 279–312

Chapter 8
The non-universality of linguistic categories

Evidence from pluractional constructions

| University of Bologna

This paper aims at giving a typological overview of pluractionality in order to show how grammatical categories, in cross-linguistic perspective, cannot be considered as universally valid entities. After having defined the phenomenon, I will present the main functions and some formal characteristics that pluractional markers have in the languages of the world. Then, I will describe the diachronic sources from which pluractional markers probably come from. Finally, I will discuss the grammatical status that pluractionality has in cross-linguistic perspective in the light of the broad variety it shows in the languages of the world and also taking into consideration data from specific languages.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical and methodological preliminaries
  • 3.Functional characteristics of pluractional markers
    • 3.1Core functions
    • 3.2Additional functions
    • 3.3Rare functions
    • 3.4The pluractional conceptual space
  • 4.Formal properties of pluractional markers
  • 5.Diachronic sources of pluractional markers
  • 6.The grammatical status of pluractional markers in cross-linguistic perspective
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Abbreviations (cf. Leipzig Glossing Rules)
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 9 July 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tsl.132.08mat
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