Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- A Note from the Editors
- Field Report
- Tonology and Phonology in the Assam Floodplain
- Special Section on Numerals
- Morphology and Syntax from Tani to Kuki-Chin
- 10 Predicate Derivations in the Tani Languages: Root, Suffix, Both or Neither?
- 11 The Non-finite Markers –la and –pc in Mising
- 12 Universal Quantifiers in Manipuri
- 13 Negation in Chothe Grammar
12 - Universal Quantifiers in Manipuri
from Morphology and Syntax from Tani to Kuki-Chin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 October 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- A Note from the Editors
- Field Report
- Tonology and Phonology in the Assam Floodplain
- Special Section on Numerals
- Morphology and Syntax from Tani to Kuki-Chin
- 10 Predicate Derivations in the Tani Languages: Root, Suffix, Both or Neither?
- 11 The Non-finite Markers –la and –pc in Mising
- 12 Universal Quantifiers in Manipuri
- 13 Negation in Chothe Grammar
Summary
Introduction
Manipuri or Meiteilon, the language of the Meiteis, is spoken in Manipur, a state situated in North East India. According to Grierson (1904), it is a Tibeto-Burman language of the Kuki-Chin sub-family. However, according to the classification made by Burling (2003), Manipuri is best treated as a separate entity rather than as a subfamily of the Naga-Kuki group. It is the official language of the state alongside English. As Manipur is also the home of many other hill tribes namely, Nagas and Kukis, Meiteilon serves as a lingua franca among the speakers of 29 dialects of the state.
Prior to the explanation of universal quantifiers in Manipuri, we look at the difference between distributivity and collectivity. There are two accounts of plural denotation, they are distibutivity and collectivity. Distributivity indicates reference to each individual member of a set (Mathews, 1997). We can say that a term A (plural term) is distributive only if A is true of some things and if it is true of each of them separately. If we say a term A denotes several things, it is equivalent to saying that it denotes each of them separately. We can say that an expression has collectivity denotation when the plural term A denotes several things jointly without denoting any of them separately. Term A is collective if it is not distributive.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- North East Indian Linguistics , pp. 219 - 230Publisher: Foundation BooksPrint publication year: 2009