One of the most salient putative African features of Palenquero, an Afro-Hispanic creole spoken in northern Colombia, is the prenominal plural marker ma. However, plural number is not categorically marked with ma, which alternates with bare forms in plural contexts and also occurs in singular contexts. In a principled sample of noun phrases (n = 1,186) from the spontaneous speech of twenty-seven Palenquero-Spanish bilinguals, the rate of ma (versus zero) is 51% in plural and 13% in singular contexts. Singular ma is favored with subjects and specific objects, consistent with an association with definiteness. In plural contexts, where it is robust, selection of ma is favored with specific and generic referents in subject role. This conditioning indicates that plural marking is favored for discourse referential nouns, in accordance with the cross-linguistic generalization that morphological marking tends to appear on instances that approach the prototypical function of a category (Hopper & Thompson, 1984).

中文翻译：

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Palenquero Creole 中的可变复数标记

Palenquero 最显着的假定非洲特征之一是哥伦比亚北部使用的非裔西班牙克里奥尔语，是名词前复数标记嘛. 但是，复数没有明确标记嘛，它在复数语境中与裸形式交替出现，也出现在单数语境中。在名词短语的原则样本中（n= 1,186) 从 27 名帕伦克罗-西班牙双语者的自发演讲中，嘛（相对于零）在复数情况下为 51%，在单数情况下为 13%。单数嘛受主语和特定客体的青睐，与确定性的关联一致。在复数上下文中，如果它是稳健的，则选择嘛在主题角色中受到特定和一般指称者的青睐。根据跨语言概括，形态标记倾向于出现在接近类别原型功能的实例上（Hopper & Thompson, 1984），这种条件条件表明复数标记更适合话语指称名词。