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| Trépos (1956) claims that in order to derive an individual reading from a collective noun, one needs to use the individuating suffix ''-enn''. This claim, however, does not seem to hold for contemporary standard Breton ('le Breton unifié'). The suffix ''-enn'' can be added to any collective noun and its presence or absence does not seem to have any semantic effect:
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| (1) gwenan
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| bee
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| 'bees'
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| (2) gwenan-enn
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| bee-enn
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| 'bees'
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| (3) ur wenan
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| a bee
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| 'a bee, i.e. an individual bee'
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| (4) ur wenan-enn
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| a bee-enn
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| 'a bee, i.e. an individual bee'
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| (1) is an example of a collective noun without the suffix ''-enn'', (2) is a collective noun with ''-enn''. Both have the same collective reading. This shows that the suffix ''-enn'' is optional. (3) does not have the suffix ''-enn'' and refers to an idividual bee, (4) has the suffix ''-enn'' and gets the same interpretation as (3). Again, the suffix ''-enn'' appears to be optional. It is thus optional both for the collective and the individual reading. Note that a collective noun which has the suffix ''-enn'' does not exclude a mass reading (5-6). This mass reading would be unexpected if ''-enn'' forced an individual reading, as Trépos (1956) proposed.
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| (5) saladenn
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| salad-enn
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| 'salad'
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| (6) geotenn
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| grass-enn
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| 'grass'
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| The suffix ''-enn'' can further be used to derive nouns from other nouns. The meaning of such derivations is non-compositional.
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| (7) sukr
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| sugar
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| 'sugar'
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| (8) sukr-enn
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| sugar-enn
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| 'sugar factory'
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| (9) taol
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| table
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| 'table'
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| (10) taol-enn
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| table-enn
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| 'painting'
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| Also, some nouns are illicit without the suffix ''-enn'':
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| (11) * kroc'h
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| (12) kroc'h-enn
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| skin-enn
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| 'skin'
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| The suffix ''-enn'' often occurs in deverbal nominalizations, where it follows the suffix ''-ad'':
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| (13) komz
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| talk
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| 'to talk'
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| (14) komz-ad-enn
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| talk-ad-enn
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| 'conversation'
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| Summing up, the suffix ''-enn' seems to be optional for collective nouns, both in the collective and individual reading. It is further used in nominal derivations.
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