Verbal number and transitivity in Karko (Kordofan Nubian)

Abstract The present paper is concerned with Karko, a Kordofan Nubian language of Sudan. The paper tries to show how verbal number formally interacts with the encoding of grammatical relations. Verbal number – as realized by singular stems and plural stems – is sensitive to the number of the intransitive subject, the number of the transitive object and the number of the direct object in a ditransitive clause. Moreover, the paper provides evidence of passive and anti-passive constructions being based on plural (rather than singular) verb stems. This suggests that plural verb stems are associated with reduced transitivity.