Number in South American languages

This chapter offers a typological overview of the number category in the
indigenous languages of South America (SA). The focus is placed on number in
independent personal pronouns and on nouns, as well as on verbal number. The
discussion is centered around tendencies and patterns that SA languages show in
number marking in the (pro)nominal and verbal domains. Whenever relevant, SA
data are situated in a larger cross-linguistic context.
The section on verbal number constitutes a first comparative account of this
phenomenon in SA languages. It is shown that both types of verbal number (i.e.
event number and participant number) are widespread in SA, occurring in most
language families surveyed. Teasing apart verbal number (of the participant plurality
type) and nominal number manifested on the verb (argument indexing) turns out
to be an interesting challenge for SA, with many intermediate cases.