Gender and Number in Mosittacha

Abstract

This paper discusses the gender and number systems and their interaction. The findings of the study show that Mosittacha is a language with two nominal genders masculine and feminine. Nouns also mark two number categories, singular and plural. Regarding the interaction between gender and number, there are nouns which in the singular fall into two gender categories, masculine (m.) and feminine (f.). Such nouns have plural forms in which gender is not distinguished. There are also masculine and feminine nouns which have no plural counterparts. Still, there are a small number of nouns which lack the usual plural suffixes, which take plural verb agreement when they function as a clause subject and which refer to a single entity. This small group of exceptional nouns should be idiosyncratically marked as plural in the lexicon.