Sender: own*r-bahasa@auckland.ac.nz

Date: Sun, 25 Oct 1998 07:11:22 +1300
Subject: Re: BAHASA- Counting Problems

...the basic rules are essentially:

The plural form of the noun is used when (a) plurality is relevant and not yet explicitly indicated by a numerical attribute (dua, banyak, beberapa) and (b) in particular instances when beside plurality also variety is relevant, or one wishes to somehow doubly stress the plurality.

Otherwise (i.e. simple plurality is irrelevant, or it is relevant but already implicit from the attribution), the non-plural (non-reduplicated) form is used.

rumah-rumah itu	"	those houses", but
tiap-tiap rumah itu	"	each of those houses"
setiap rumah	"	each house"
beberapa rumah	"	some houses"
sejumlah rumah	"	a number of houses.
or
setiap rumah-rumah itu	"	each of those various houses, each of those many houses,"
semua rumah-rumah	"	all those many houses"

These latter constructions occur more rarely (and more often in spoken rather than in written speech) I think. I'm also not so sure about how a strictly "baku" grammarian might see this.... Anyway, double reduplication (in the attribute as well as in the noun) is usually avoided, i.e. tiap-tiap buku-buku "each of various books" is somewhat "strained", though essentially I don't think it is "non-grammatical" (again, this may not be quite "baku").

When reduplication in the noun is derivational (and not plural marker) then there is no constraint on combination with plurality-implying attributes of course, no matter whether reduplicated or not:

tiap-tiap mata-mata	"	each spy"
beberapa kodok-kodok	"	some piston bellows"
sejumlah padi-padian	"	a number of cereals".

Hope that was any help.

Salam, Waruno