The Use of Collective Numeral Phrases in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian: Morphosemantic Approach

초록

The purpose of this research is to analyze three different types of collective numeral forms and their grammatically appropriate uses in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian (BCS). BCS collective numbers, i.e., i) collective numeral substantives, ii) collective numerals, and iii) collective numeral adjectives, are used to emphasize the meaning of totality or gender specification of a group. Collective numeral substantives denote a group of males, whereas collective numerals specify a group of mixed genders. The uses of these three forms of collective numbers are determined by the properties of quantified nouns. These nominal morphosemantic properties triggering a series of anomalies in numeral phrases can be analyzed by Minimal Lexical Representation (MLR), which portrays the dichotomous description of nouns between formal/ grammatical analysis and semantic analysis. MLR can provide a better explanation for nouns with a mismatch in morphology and semantics, i.e., morphosemantic mismatch, e.g., dual gender nouns, which belong to declension class II (feminine nouns in –a), but indicate male persons. Furthermore, the analysis of collective numbers in BCS can benefit not only a linguistic explanation, but also an effective learning of BCS numerals from a pedagogical perspective.

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