Editing Grammatical number (section)

===Collective plural===

The collective plural denotes multiple entities that are considered together as a unit. It is often conceptualized as the opposite of the distributive.<ref name="Corbett2000p117"/> For example, in [[Tunica language|Tunica]]:<ref>See:
*{{cite book |last=Haas |first=Mary R. |author-link=Mary Haas |title=Tunica Grammar |type=Unpublished manuscript |pages=282–285 |url=https://diglib.amphilsoc.org/islandora/object/text%3A350118 }}
*{{cite book |last=Haas |first=Mary R. |author-link=Mary Haas |editor-last=Osgood |editor-first=Cornelius |year=1967 |orig-year=1946 |title=Linguistic Structures of Native America |series=Viking Fund Publications in Anthropology no. 6 |url=https://archive.org/details/linguisticstruct0000osgo/mode/2up |location=New York |publisher=Johnson Reprint Company |chapter=A Grammatical Sketch of Tunica |pages=337–366 [344, 359] }}
*{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |last=Harvey |first=Megan Anna |year=2023 |title=Documenting Reawakening Languages: A Case Study of Tunica |url=https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/669841/azu_etd_20895_sip1_m.pdf |pages=50, 114–115, 556–557 |publisher=University of Arizona |access-date=2024-03-24 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240324023413/https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/669841/azu_etd_20895_sip1_m.pdf |archive-date=2024-03-24 }}
*{{cite journal |author-last1=Heaton |author-first1=Raina |author-last2=Anderson |author-first2=Patricia |date=2017 |title=When Animals Become Humans: Grammatical Gender in Tunica |journal=International Journal of American Linguistics |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=341–363 [342, 345–351] |doi=10.1086/689832 }}
</ref>

*{{lang|tun|sa}} - "dog" (singular)
*{{lang|tun|sa'''{{`}}unima'''}} - "two dogs" (dual)
*{{lang|tun|sa'''sinima'''}} - "dogs" (plural)
*{{lang|tun|sa'''hchi'''}} - "pack of dogs" (collective plural)

The collective may be limited to just a small subset of nouns, like in [[Bandial language|Kujireray]], where it can only be used with certain insects and small objects: {{lang|bqj|'''e'''nipora}}, fly; {{lang|bqj|'''si'''nipora}}, flies; and {{lang|bqj|'''ba'''nipora}}, swarm of flies.<ref>{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |last=Watson |first=Rachel |year=2015 |title=Kujireray: Morphosyntax, Noun Classification and Verbal Nouns |url=https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/22829/1/Watson_4244.pdf |pages=242–244 |publisher=SOAS University of London |access-date=2024-03-24 |archive-date=2021-02-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210208023629/https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/22829/1/Watson_4244.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> Just like the distributive, the collective can also change the meaning of verbs, as in [[Panyjima language|Panyjima]]: {{lang|pnw|karri}}, to stand, and {{lang|pnw|karri'''nyayi'''}}, to stand together.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dench |first=Alan |date=1987 |title=Kinship and Collective Activity in the Ngayarda Languages of Australia |journal=Language in Society |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=321–339 [324] |doi=10.1017/S0047404500012410 |jstor=4167857 }}</ref> In [[Vaeakau-Taumako language|Vaeakau-Taumako]], the collective is indicated through different [[Article (grammar)|articles]]: {{lang|piv|te tai}}, the person; {{lang|piv|ngha tai}}, the people; and {{lang|piv|a tai}}, the group of people.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Næss |author-first1=Åshild |author-last2=Hovdhaugen |author-first2=Even |author-link2=Even Hovdhaugen |year=2011 |title=A Grammar of Vaeakau-Taumako |series=Mouton Grammar Library 52 |location=Berlin |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |pages=18, 36, 52, 165–172, 349 |isbn=978-3-11-023827-3 }}</ref>

The collective presents similar issues as the distributive in its potential classification as grammatical number, including the fact that some languages allow both collective and plural markers on the same words. Adding a collective to a plural word does not change the number of referents, only how those referents are conceptualized.<ref>{{cite book |last=Corbett |first=Greville G. |author-link=Greville G Corbett |year=2004 |orig-year=2000 |title=Number |series=Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=117–120 |isbn=0-511-01591-7 }}</ref>