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Definite Markers, Phi Features and Agreement - Georgetown ...

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inflected for number (singular or plural). Gender is not marked systematically <strong>and</strong> adheres fairlyclosely to natural gender. Some examples of feminine <strong>and</strong> masculine nouns are in (6). Thegender system is discussed at length in Chapter 3.(6) Feminine Nouns Masculine Nounsngst ‘queen’ bet ‘house’mäkina ‘car’ nuro ‘life’nnat ‘mother’ abbat ‘father’agär ‘country’ dngay ‘stone’As for number, singular is unmarked (unsurprisingly). The plural is marked with the suffix -ott.(7) a. bet-u b. bet-ott-uhouse-DEFthe househouse-PL-DEFthe housesThe number system is the focus of Chapter 4.The case system in Amharic is rather minimal, which is somewhat atypical for an SOVlanguage <strong>and</strong> which has led to a few analyses of the prepositions as a complicated case-markingsystem (Hetzron 1970, Tremblay <strong>and</strong> Kabbaj 1990). Nominative case is not marked at all.Accusative case is marked by the suffix -n, <strong>and</strong> it is marked differentially, i.e., depending on thedefiniteness of the direct object (see Aissen 2003 on this phenomenon in general; Weldeyesus8

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