Number marking by reduplication may consist of signing the same sign several times in the same spatial location, e.g. the ESL sign for brick (see example (40)) carries this type of number marker.

As a means of pluralization, reduplication is a frequent and iconic way of showing singular/plural contrast in spoken languages as well (Cruse 1994:2859). For instance, in the Indonesian language the whole stem of a noun is reduplicated: buku ‘book,’ buku-buku ‘books’ (Cruse 1994:2859) (for more examples, see 4.2.1).

The second most common type of number marker, the reduplication of handshape, involves the articulation of a one-handed sign with both hands. This occurs, for instance, in such ESL signs as Root, ear, etc. Often not only singular/plural contrast, but a finer distinction for singular/dual is encoded by this way of pluralization of nouns, especially in the case of signs for body parts (ears, eyes, eyebrows, etc.), but is not restricted to them. Consider examples (25) and (26) where the signs are marked for number ‘two’ by the reduplication of handshape:

Displacing several repetitions of a sign in signing space serves to signal number distinction as well. Nouns which have been assigned a location in signing space are “countable” by virtue of the number of times they are placed in the space. For instance, ‘three piglets’ in example (27) is marked for number ‘three’ (trial) explicitly:

The third most common way of marking number in the ESL noun phrase is the use of a separate sign expressing numerosity, a quantifier such as MANY/MUCH, ALL, VARIOUS, or a numeral. This type of number marking is likely to co-occur with nouns/signs that cannot reduplicate either handshape or movement due to their derivational origin and formational properties (see also 6.1.3). For instance, such ESL signs as BIRD, ROBOT, HORSE, etc. require a quantifier or a numeral to be marked for number distinction. Again, this way of number marking can be found in spoken languages: grammatical information concerning numerosity must be conveyed by lexical items such as khlah ‘some,’ pii-bey ‘a few,’ etc. in Khmer, a language where neither nouns nor verbs carry any number information (Cruse 1994:2857).

Nevertheless, on the basis of the present data, two patterns of number marking in relation to quantifiers and numerals occur: either the number information of the noun is expressed by a quantifier or a numeral and the noun itself does not carry any overt number marker, or the plural marker is attached to the noun even after numerals.

First, if an overt number marker cannot be attached to the noun itself, the number information is expressed only by a numeral or some other expression of numerosity. As an illustration see the following examples; quantifiers and numerals are in bold:

With reference to the example (31), it should be noted that in the case of signs with temporal meaning (i.e. MINUTE, HOUR, MONTH in ESL), a handshape indicating a numeral from two to nine (i.e. number classifier) may be inserted into the sign.

The second pattern of number marking in relation to numerals and quantifiers displays concord between the numeral and the noun marked for plurality, as for example:

The sign for quantifier VARIOUS appears to be deceptive, or to have several functions. It always follows an enumeration of nouns in the present data, thus leaving an impression of a plural marker, but might actually be interpreted as serving to create a superordinate category. See example (34):

In this example we can see that a separate lexical element expressing numerosity, the sign for VARIOUS, follows the enumeration of two items. However, instead of marking these items for singular/plural contrast, it appears to form a concept for ‘jewellery’ in this particular context by transforming ‘necklace’ and 'ring' into a superordinate category which refers to a wider class possessing fewer concrete, obvious attributes. Thus, when preceding the sign for CASKET, the sign VARIOUS appears to create a compound standing for a ‘jewel case’. In principle, one of the functions of the sign for VARIOUS could be to create a concept which lies at a different level of generality in the semantic hierarchy, a superordinate category, by compounding two or three basic level signs selected from prototypical exemplars.

For comparison, a similar mechanism for creating superordinate categories together with a sign for ETCETERA (ETC.) has been pointed out by Klima and Bellugi (1979:230-236) in their description of signs in American Sign Language. For instance, CLARINET-PIANO-GUITAR ETC. stands for a musical instrument, and APPLE-ORANGE-BANANA ETC. for fruit.

However, in example (35) the sign VARIOUS could either mark elements for plural, or for a more general concept ‘vegetables.’ In a discussion about that particular example, both interpretations were given despite the fact that a separate sign for VEGETABLES exists in ESL, cf.:

One type of number marker which probably occurs due to the influence of the Estonian language is the mouth pattern. That is, while signing a basic sign form standing for the noun, the mouth picture follows the pattern of uttering the nominative plural case-ending in Estonian, -d. As an illustration, see example (36) where it is only the mouth which marks the noun (ANIMAL, BIRD) for plural:

In order to explain which particular type of inflection for number distinction a sign is likely to undergo (if any at all), one has to concentrate on the morphology of signs which remains beyond the scope of the present study (however, see 6.1.2).

6.1.2 The locus of number marking

Unlike spoken languages where the category of number is considered to be inherent in the noun, or at least in the noun phrase, in Estonian Sign Language the principal signal of number may appear either in the noun phrase or in the verb phrase.

If the noun phrase is overtly marked for number distinction in ESL, then, according to the data of the present study, the number marker is likely to occur only at the head noun of the NP. Adjectives functioning as modifiers of the head noun do not carry any overt number marker, thus exhibiting no number agreement with their heads. Consider example (37) where the head noun EYELASH is marked for number (dual), but the modifying adjective BEAUTIFUL appears in uninflected form:

In example (38), the head noun EAR is marked for dual, whereas the following adjective SHARP has no distinction for number:

In this sense, ESL resembles, for example, English where adjectives are not affected by the number of their head, and differs, for instance, from Estonian where a high degree of agreement in number occurs throughout the phrase.

However, characteristically of sign languages studied so far, ESL also shows simultaneous modification. In that case, the adjectival modifier is inserted into the articulation of the sign, and thus number information appears both on the noun and the modifier simultaneously; see, e.g. nominal object (ROOT-LONG_[PL]) in example (39):

Another possibility for the locus of the number marker in the ESL noun phrase is, except for the noun itself, a classifier (more precisely, size-and-shape specifier (SASS)). The SASS, according to the data of the present study, appears to form a compound (or a new concept, see also 6.2) together with the primary ESL noun sign. Therefore, if a noun sign and a size-and-shape-specifier occur simultaneously, the tendency is for the number marker to appear on the latter. In the following examples, size-and-shape specifier is indicated by the prefix SASS, (see also example (27) where the sign SMALL is SASS), cf.:

In Finnish Sign Language it is also the case that the affixing of classifiers is used for expressing the plural of signs which stand for “objects of certain shape (thin and long, flat and rectangular or cubic objects; e.g. sticks, pictures or houses respectively)” (Rissanen 1986:45).

In ESL, it is not always the noun phrase that serves as a locus for number marking. An overt number marker may appear in the verb phrase instead: the distinction ‘one’ versus ‘more-than-one’ is signalled by the verb form inflected for plurality. Consider example (42) where the nominal object (FLOWER) does not carry any overt number marker, but the following verb (PLANT) expresses the singular/plural contrast of its argument:

The same sentence in singular would be as follows:

The grammatical signalling of number on the noun is often left unmarked in American Sign Language as well: “in some contexts the noun object may appear in uninflected form while the verb carries the burden of specification for number” (Klima & Bellugi 1979:281). In comparison, consider the following examples from ASL; in the square brackets N stands for a noun, and ‘multiple’ refers to the verb form inflected by repetition:

MAN, (ME) ASK ‘I asked the man’       (ASL)
MAN, (ME) ASK_{[N: multiple]} ‘I asked the men’

Another example from ESL, example (44), may be used to illustrate how the nominal object (BEAR BERRY) is marked covertly for number distinction by the verb inflection:

The role of number marking can solely be taken on by the verb also in the case of some nominal subjects: the distinction for ‘one’ versus ‘many’ is determined by the internal changes in the form of the verb. Consider example (45), where the nominal subject (CRANE) has no overt number marker. Instead, the verb (GO) indicates plural:

For comparison, in Estonian and in English, for instance, the distinction between singular and plural is obligatorily marked on nouns: it is not grammatically correct to leave the number of a nominal subject unspecified. See example (46) from Estonian and example (47) from English:

When deaf informants were asked to sign the sentence ‘A crane will fly to the south soon’, the sign for number ONE was signed before the sign for CRANE; the verb GO was signed as unmarked for number. In example (48), an overt number marker does not appear either on the noun (CRANE) or on the verb (FLY). Rather the number is to be determined by the context, or is encoded covertly in the sign for MOVE-IN-V-SHAPED-FORMATION, cf.:

We can see from the examples presented so far that Estonian Sign Language does not show agreement in number in the noun phrase and sometimes not even in a clause, or at a sentence level. If the verb carries the specification for number, an unmarked singular form of the noun may be used optionally with plural reference. For the number marker to appear on the verb seems to be typical of sign languages (as research on different sign languages shows), but relatively uncommon to spoken languages, as pointed out by Cruse (1994:2859). A spoken language called Miriam is said to follow this pattern:
“the verb in Miriam encodes the number of its subject (a four-way singular/dual/trial/plural contrast) and its object (singular and plural only),” e.g. irmile means ‘one follows one,’ irmirdare means ‘three follow one,’ and dirmirei means ‘two follow many,’ etc. (Cruse 1994:2859).

In the case of a sign language, however, we have to take into account the different modality of sign production and mechanisms for expression. Whereas in Estonian, for example, we can mark the singular/plural distinction for nouns in the nominative simply by adding -d to the base form in genitive singular, in sign languages the formation of plural forms of nouns is related to their derivational origin and formational properties. That is, signs with a repeated movement in citation form, with continuous contact between the hand and a body part, and nouns which are formed by a derivational process from verbs tend not to inflect for number by reduplication (Kyle & Woll 1994:3899). The latter is one of the types of number marking in sign languages (see 6.1.1), and thus other means or different loci should be used to signal number information.

6.1.3 The position of the numeral and the quantifier vis-à-vis the head noun

Provided that a handshape indicating number is not inserted into a noun sign (as tends to be the case if we consider signs with temporal meaning, e.g. month, year, hour, minute, see 6.1.1), then, according to the present study, numeral modifiers and certain quantifying modifiers such as all, each/every, occur in the pre-nominal position in ESL noun phrases. The following examples serve as an illustration; numeral and quantifying modifiers are in bold:

However, while discussing the position of numerals in ESL, one of the deaf informants of the present study claimed that one should sign first what? and then how many?, that is, the head noun should precede the numeral, and the numeral itself occurs as post-nominal modifier (noun - numeral, as in example (54)). Only when answering to the question how many (chairs/pictures, etc.)? do we have the numeral as a pre-nominal modifier (numeral - noun, as in (55)):