Verbal Number in Chadic, with Special Reference to Hausa

Abstract The chapter provides a general overview of the formal marking of pluractionality in Chadic languages and its observable interpretive effects, with a special focus of Hausa. Section 29.2 introduces the three major strategies for marking pluractionality in Chadic (reduplication, infixing/ablauting, suffixation), before discussing possible correspondences between formal marking and interpretation. The empirical focus lies on languages that do not figure prominently in earlier works on pluractionality in Chadic. The section also contains a case study on the interpretation of different ways of pluractional marking in West Chadic Bole. Section 29.3 introduces the basic patterns of pluractional marking in Hausa, and their basic semantic interpretation in terms of distribution over participants or places. It then discusses secondary, pragmatically inferred meaning effects in terms of abundance, individuation, or intensification. The chapter ends with a discussion of why pluractional marking in Hausa does not easily allow for iterative event interpretations.