Semantics of number marking in Maaka

Abstract Maaka is a West Chadic language which exhibits a rich system of verbal number marking, which in part resembles those of its close relatives. But apart from the more ‘typical’ pluractionals also found elsewhere in Chadic, Maaka has verbal number markers that differ by expressing number values and meanings that are otherwise characteristic for nouns in languages where number marking correlates with nominal aspect. In Maaka, not only nouns can be differentiated according to countability and membership in semantic categories, but verbs as well: Events are framed as either multiple and similar or multiple and diverse, as happening at one single place or involving several locations and different groups of agents and patients. This chapter illustrates in which ways lexical aspect plays an important role in the selection of a specific pluractional form of a given verb.