/ instituut voor de Nederlandse taal / Taalportaal
bibliography glossary about
  • Dutch
  • Frisian
  • Saterfrisian
  • Afrikaans
Show all
    -tal
    quickinfo

    The suffix -tal /tɑl/ is a non-cohering native suffix creating countable nouns of neuter gender from cardinal numerals, such as tweetal [[twee](NUM)[-tal]](N) 2-tal duo. Plurals are in -en (tweetallen /tʋe.tɑ.lə(n)/ duos). Formations with -tal have two usages: the lay meaning is group with (approximately) the cardinality of the base cardinal, the mathematical meaning is N-tuple.

    readmore
    [+]Input conditions

    The Germanic suffix -tal /tɑl/ is used to create countable nouns from cardinal numbers, e.g. drietal [[drie](NUM)[-tal]](N) 3-tal triple, threesome. Being of neuter gender, these nouns select the definite article het. The suffix may yield an infinite number of formations, given that the series of cardinals itself is infinite: zestal 6-some, tiental 10-some, duizendtal 1000-tuple, zestienhonderdtal 1600-tuple, etc.

    extra

    The suffix -tal is related to an obsolete noun tal number that is also found in the derived noun getal number (an old collectivisation of the obsolete noun tal number, the derived adjective talloos without number, innumerable, the compound noun jaartal year, the fixed expression zonder tal without number, uncountably many and the fixed quantifying expression tal van N a lot of. The noun aantal amount, number is a loan translation from German (Anzahl) (Van der Sijs 2010 via ).

    [+]Inflectional properties

    The plural of -tal derivations is formed with the suffix -en: drietallen triples, honderdtallen multiples of hundred, hundreds.

    [+]Semantics

    Formations with -tal have two usages: the mathematical meaning is N-tuple(1), the lay meaning is group with (approximately) the cardinality of the base cardinal; in the latter case, one tends to get the exact meaning in definite contexts (2) and the approximation reading in indefinite contexts (3).

    1
    een tiental is altijd deelbaar door twee en door vijf
    a tenfold is always divisable by two and by five
    tens can always be divided by two and five
    2
    De politie heeft vier inbrekers betrapt. Het viertal is gearresteerd.
    The police has four burglars caught. The foursome is arrested
    The police have caught four burglars. The quartet has been arrested
    3
    Herexamens van een tiental scholen kwijt
    Re-examinations of a tenfold schools lost
    Re-examinations of a dozen schools lost

    The approximative reading is less than felicitous with larger high precision numbers (?herexamens van een eenendertigtal scholen kwijt Re-examinations of a 31-fold schools lost) (cf. also Jansen 2001).

    extra

    The plural form also allows for both exact and approximative interpretations, cf. the following examples

    i
    Laat de leerlingen in drietallen de vragen beantwoorden
    Let the pupils in three-tal-en the questions answer
    Have the students answer the questions in threes
    ii
    Tientallen studenten opgepakt bij betogingen
    ten-tal-en students up-taken by demonstrations
    Dozens of students arrested during demonstrations

    In the approximative reading, the plural forms of -tal formations compete with the plural forms of the cardinal numbers: En ze kwamen, met honderdtallen tegelijk and they came, with hundred-tal-en together and En ze kwamen, met honderden tegelijk and they came, with hundreds together are synonymous, although a small stylistic difference may be felt. Example (5) with tientallen, however, has no counterpart with a plural form of tien, as tienen cannot be used with this semantics.

    The noun elftal 11-tal group of eleven is not only any random group of eleven members, but also a sports team of eleven people, as customary in the games of soccer and hockey.

    [+]Phonological properties

    The suffix -tal /tɑl/ is non-cohering: syllabification respects the morphological boundary, witness zestal zes-tal /ˈzɛs.ˌtɑl/ sixtuple rather than /*ˈzɛ.ˌstɑl/ which would be expected given the maximal onset principle. Stress in -tal formations is on the base, the suffix bears secondary stress.

    [+]Morphological potential

    Formations with -tal can be input to further derivation with the suffix -ig, which results in adjectives such as tweetallig binary.

    extra

    This is not possible with all -tal derivations: *jaartallig (< jaartal year) and *aantallig (< aantal number, amount) are impossible. On the other hand, there are a few forms in -tallig where the corresponding noun in -tal does not exist, e.g. the adjective voltallig complete, in plenary and the adverb veeltallig numerously (e.g. Het Instituut dankt de veeltallig aanwezige leden the Institute thanks the numerous present members The institute thanks the members who are so numerously present).

    References
    • Jansen, Carel and Thijs Pollmann2001On round numbers. Pragmatics of numerical expressionsJournal of quantitative linguistics8187-202
    • Sijs, Nicoline van der2010Etymologiebank, http://etymologiebank.nl/
    About this article
    Author(s): Ton van der Wouden
    Category: Dutch Morphology
    Keywords: nounderivationcardinal numeral
    Version: 1.0, December 2015
    Version history:
    version editor(s) date remarks
    1.0 Ton van der Wouden December 2015
    printreport errorcite
    Jump to:
    X