Quantifiers modifying mass nouns

N Quant mi kurik ‘all men’ N Quant Quant mi khajet kurik ‘all men all inclusive’ N Quant mi tshetmit ‘innumerable number of men’ N Quant khim døntøt ‘a lot of houses’ N Quant phitsa thamtɕet ‘all children all inclusive’ N Quant simtɕen gak ‘many wild animals’ N Quant dawa gatɕen ‘many months’ NP Quant mi tɕhijaa khajet ‘influential or powerful men’

3.6.5 Quantifiers modifying mass nouns

Mass nouns like water, milk, beer, liquor, rain, flood, snow, money, medicine, work, etc. obviously do not have plural. Quantifiers modify them and communicate the quantity of the head noun. There are some quantifiers which collocate both with count nouns and mass nouns. The following examples illustrate the use of quantifiers with mass nouns. Quantifier døntøt ‘much’ with mass nouns 1. 3.92 ni roo- raŋ naŋtsaŋ di-la ak 3SG-self wife DEF-DAT INCLN t ɕha thaŋ arak døntøt bin-soŋ. TE42 tea and liquor much give[PST]-PST.VIS ‘He gave also to his wife a lot of tea and liquor.’ This quantifier collocates also with count nouns. Quantifier gat ɕen ‘a lot’ with mass nouns 2. 3.93 men gat ɕen se-ni medicine a.lot eat-NFNT2 ni hi-ni att ɕet tɕuŋ-tu ɕum-tɕuŋ. TE42 DM this-ABL little.bit small-COMP1 become.well-PST.EXP ‘After I had taken a lot of medicine the growth became a little bit smaller.’ Quantifier gak ‘a lot’ with mass nouns 3. 3.94 pajisak gak lin ɖo-ken bet. money a.lot take go-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘He is going to charge a lot of money.’ Quantifier att ɕet ‘a little bit’ with mass nouns 4. 3.95 ni u-ki khaa di ʈhʏ-na sa attɕet attɕet daa ni that-GEN snow DEF dig-NFNT1 ground little.bit little.bit lick[PST] DM khaa att ɕet attɕet daa tɕhi-na det snow little.bit little.bit lick[PST] do;VBZR-NFNT1 stay toŋ-ken bet. TE9 IMMED-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘It digs through snow, licks a bit of soil, licks a bit of snow, and in so doing stays there.’ When snow covers a yak all over it is not bothered. It can remain under snow for a week or two. Numeral t ɕik ‘one’ with mass nouns 5. 3 .96 aku passaŋ ritak-la arak tɕik bin. TE4 uncle Passang Ritak-DAT liquor one give[IMP] ‘Give uncle Passang Ritak a cup of liquor’ In this particular context of a party everybody knows how much is ‘one liquor.’ It refers to a glass or a cup of liquor. The noun for a measure is left implicit. 4 Numerals A numeral in Lhomi is a kind of quantifier and it expresses a number, quantity, sequence, and frequensy.

4.1 Cardinal numerals