Numeral reduplication in Taqbaylit

Nataša Knežević , Amazigh Bedar (1)

1 LLING - Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nantes

This paper investigates the numeral reduplication (NumRed) in Taqbaylit, involving distributive interpretations. We argue that NumRed in Taqbaylit is not a universal distributive quantifier over individuals but a marker of event plurality. Furthermore, we show that various distributive readings are not due to the ambiguity but rather to the vague semantics of the distributive morpheme Red(uplication). Our main claim is that (i) Red is an event plurality marker, (ii) distributive readings of NumRed arise through spatiotemporal separation of (sub)events and (iii) participant-distributive readings should be reduced to spatial-distributive readings. The aim of our investigation of NumRed in Taqbaylit has been to contribute to the novel insights into distributive numerals and pluractionals across languages, as well to open the door to more investigation of reduplication, distributivity and pluractionality in the Berber languages.

Mots clés: Numeral reduplication; Reduplication; Distributivity; Pluractionality; Pluractional markers; Numeral; Quantifier; Berber; Kabyle; Taqbaylit; Event plurality; Syntaxe; Semantics; Amazigh

Mots clés: Berbère

Domaines: Linguistique; Linguistique

Nataša Knežević, Amazigh Bedar. Numeral reduplication in Taqbaylit. Karim Bensoukas; Korangy Aleriza. The Handbook of Berber Linguistics. 2024, Springer, inPress. ⟨hal-03873760⟩