DUAL U SAVREMENOM BOSANSKOM JEZIKU
THE DUAL NUMBER IN MODERN BOSNIAN

Summary/Abstract: In Bosnian language grammars, there is no consistent prevailing attitude regarding the dual number. The existence of the singular and the plural is obvious and stated in all sources, but the dual, if mentioned at all, is either found to exist in traces or residual form, or is named as a vital grammatical category. This paper suggests that the dual number is not a vital grammatical category in modern Bosnian, as all examples of traces and remnants of it in present use are considered plural forms. Not all words have special plural forms in the nominative, accusative and vocative cases. Special forms can be those of masculine and neuter nouns belonging to a-declension, and masculine nouns belonging to adjectival declension. Additionally, adjectives, adjectival pronouns and ordinal numbers that agree with these nouns can have special forms. In verbal forms containing a verbal adjective functioning as a predicate, the verbal adjective can have a special form if the subject of the sentence has a special form of nominative plural. However, in the latter case the general form of the plural can also be used.

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