Props may be marked with animate plural marker. That is the reason why the speaker uses the animate plural marker -pa.
3.75 ʈopere di-ki khim-ki naŋ di-ni pulis di-pa thoŋ-ni
Topere DEF-ERG house-GEN inside DEF-ABL police DEF-PL2 see-NFNT2 taala-la dze-ni
ŋim-e tshik-la goŋ-na dep-pa bet. TE28 storey-DAT climb-NFNT2 grain-GEN among-DAT hide-NFNT1 stay-NMLZ;Q AUX
‘As soon as Topere from inside the house saw the policemen, he climbed to the upper floor and stayed there hiding himself among the ears of grain.’
In this story the policemen are coming to arrest the man called Topere. The policemen are already on the scene, hence the definite article with the plural marker.
3.6.3 Quantifiers marking plural of count nouns
Quantifiers are yet another way Lhomi expresses plurarity in count nouns, demonstratives, and personal pronouns. Quantifiers are part of the NP and the lexical head may be any count noun, animate or
inanimate. If these quantifiers are grammatical heads of a NP, they take the case marking which is grammatically appropriate for the NP.
If there is no semantic head noun, the quantifier may have an adverbial function. For more about adverbs see chapter 9. Generally the quantifier khajet implies a larger number than if -pa is used to mark
plurality. Table 3.25 gives a list of some quantifiers which mark plurality on count nouns, demonstratives, and personal pronouns.
Table 3.25. Quantifiers for count nouns, demonstatives, and personal pronouns khajet
‘plural generic’ kurik
‘all inclusive’ tshet-mit
‘not countable’ ʈhaŋ-mit
‘innumerable number’ gak
‘many’ døntøt
‘many, a lot’ gat
ɕen ‘a lot, plenty of’
thamt ɕet
‘absolutely all’ thopaa
‘few, not many, fair amount’ rap
‘relevant ones’ nampu
‘all of its kind’ The following examples illustrate the quantifiers as modifying noun heads.
Plural marker khajet 1.
3.76 mi khajet khok-pa khok-na ɖo gø ɕar-a bet. TE8
man PL crawling-NMLZ;Q crawl-NFNT1 go need.to start-NMLZ;Q AUX ‘People had to move around crawling on their knees.’
This is from a story that tells about the big earthquake in the 1930s. ‘People’ does not refer to any particular group but to men in general.
3.77 hi-ki ʈhik-la khit=raŋ khajet gem-paa-ki kha-la nen-na
this-GEN about-DAT 2PL-self plural duty-HUM2-GEN mouth-DAT listen-NFNT1
noksam gantikma toŋ. TE46
reasoning truly send;VBZR[IMP] ‘You all, obey the leader and think thoroughly about this matter in your minds’
A village leader is addressing the whole village. 3.78 keri mit-na
ɖo mit-tshuu-ken bet leader.sheep NEG.EXIST-NFNT1 go NEG-be.able-NMLZ;CONJ AUX
u-pa khajet. TE30 that-PL2 plural
‘If there is no leader sheep, they are not able to go anywhere.
Here the reference is to sheep without a leader sheep. 3.79 la khajet-la r
ʏt tshet-mit dʑap-a bet. TE8 mountain.pass plural-DAT landslide measure-NEG VBZR-NMLZ;Q AUX
‘Uncountable number of landslides took place in the mountains.’ This is from the story that tells about the big earthquake in the 1930s.
Quantifier kurik 2.
3.80 mak-mi kurik lok-na khur-a bet TE17 war-man all return-NFNT1 carry-NMLZ;Q AUX
‘All soldiers returned home.’
This is not just a plural marker but refers to the total number of soldiers who were there. Two conjoined quantifiers
khajet kurik marking all-inclusive plurality 3.
3.81 lama d ʑaapu mip-p-e jaŋ-la gʏmpu
lama Jyaapu NEG.EXIST-NMLZ;Q-GEN time-DAT winter gompa juu-
kaŋ-na mi khayet kurik gʏnnaa-la soŋ-a bet. TE31
Gomba village-house-IN man plural all winter.trip-DAT go-NMLZ;Q AUX ‘In winter when Lama Jyaabu was not in Gomba village, absolutely all men traveled
down to lower areas.’
This is from a story that tells how a golden idol was stolen in the village of Gomba. Lhomis excape the cold winter and walk down south to enjoy warmer weather. By using these two quantifiers speaker
wants to signal that really all villagers of Gomba village had gone. It is not necessarily a large number but the focus is that all of them had gone—not in the absolute sense however.
Quantifier tshet-mit with mass nouns 4.
3.82 ni hassøt u-ki piipu-waa khayet di-ki u-ki khim di-tu VIP that-GEN Piipu-HUM2 plural DEF-ERG that-GEN house DEF-LOC
t ɕhaŋ thaŋ arak thaŋ ɕa tshet-mit se-pa bet. TE34
beer and liquor and meat measure-NEG eat-NMLZ;Q AUX ‘Then people of Piipu village drank a huge amount of beer and liquor and ate a huge
amount of meat.’ Two conjoined quantifiers
tshetmit ʈhaŋmit modifying count nouns 5.
3.83 u-na mi tshet-mit
