A synchronic and diachronic typology of similative plurals: Evidence in Sinitic varieties

This study presents a comprehensive synchronic and diachronic typological analysis of similative plurals in Sinitic varieties, a plural category that expresses ‘X and similar entities’. This research challenges prior claims that have equate similative plurals with general extenders by demonstrating distinctions in semantic, pragmatic, syntactic, and prosodic features. Data concerning 88 Sinitic varieties attest to all four logically possible patterns of coexpression among similative, associative, and ordinary plural markers, including a pattern that has previously been unattested in cross-linguistic samples, according to which similative and ordinary plurals share a marker that is distinct from the associative plural marker. In addition, functionally comparable similative marking may occur with expressions that are based on verbal lexemes but exhibit a nominal distribution; nominal exemplars also include high-animacy nouns, thus challenging previous typological generalizations. Diachronically, these results extend existing typologies through the identification of four additional source types—plural demonstratives, locative words, similarity-denoting elements and kind/type-related elements—and three pathways of functional extension within plural categories in Sinitic varieties.