Pluralnih

Pluralnih is a linguistic term used in morphosyntactic typology to describe the set of forms by which plurality is encoded in noun phrases across languages with systematic case and gender inflection. The pluralnih repertoire includes suffixes, stem changes, or separate words that mark plural agreement on nouns, adjectives, determiners, and pronouns, and that interact with case, number, and definiteness. The concept is used to compare how languages implement plural concord within noun phrases.

Etymology and terminology

The name pluralnih is constructed from the English root plural with a Slavic-style adjectival suffix, a convention found in some scholarly surveys to label a class of plural-marking forms. It is not a single language or a single rule, but a cross-language category used in comparative work.

Morphology and usage

Pluralnih forms may attach as suffixes to nouns (suffixal pluralnih), appear as stem changes (ablaut-like pluralnih), or be realized as separate words (periphrastic pluralnih). They typically co-occur with case systems and gender agreement, and they influence determiners and adjectives to ensure concord within the noun phrase. In some languages, pluralnih markers differentiate definite from indefinite noun phrases.

Typology and cross-linguistic patterns

Across languages, pluralnih patterns show substantial variety: productive suffixal systems, stem-based changes with limited allomorphy, and mixed or periphrastic strategies in contact varieties. Comparative studies use pluralnih as a framework to classify and contrast plural agreement strategies, tracing historical changes such as reanalysis of adjectives as independent words or nouns acquiring plural markers.

See also

plurality, grammatical agreement, noun phrase, inflection, typology