quadral

plural quadrals · alternative quadrual · alternative quatral

1. countableuncountablegrammarA grammatical number referring to four (or more) things.

   The number categories of JSL pronouns are singular, dual, trial, quadral and plural.

   2015, Keren Cumberbatch, “Jamaican Sign Language”, in Sign Languages of the World: A Comparative Handbook, page 517

   4 more examples

   These are the three best claims for quadrals. There are several false trails in the literature, that is, suggestions of other Austronesian languages with quadrals, which turn out in fact to have four number values not five.

   2000, Greville G. Corbett, Number, page 30

   Likewise, expression of quadral is accomplished in the same way by establishing specific locations or points in signing space.

   2003, Merilin Miljan, “Number in Estonian Sign Language”, in TRAMES, volume 7, number 3, page 207

   While the coding of the person distinctions in Tolai is not as transparent as in Tok Pisin, the coding of number shows obvious relations to the number words of this language […] perhaps evidence of a quadral that was generalized to a plural.

   2006, Manfred Krifka, “A Note on the Pronoun System and the Predicate Marker in Tok Pisin”, in Form, Structure, and Grammar: A Festschrift Presented to Günther Grewendorf on Occasion of His 60th Birthday, page 80

   Another point is that, judging from the existing descriptions, true trials are extremely rare and true quadrals do not exist.

   2009, Michael Cysouw, The Paradigmatic Structure of Person Marking, page 203

2. countableuncountablemathematicsA set of points with all the combinatorial properties of a quadric (a quadric being the set of points of PG(n, q) whose coordinates satisfy a quadratic equation).

   "A polynomial P(x₁, ..., xₙ is called quadral if it splits into a product of quadratic (or linear) functions in the complex field of coefficients."

   1952, American Mathematical Society, “Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society”, in Journal of the American Mathematical Society, page 184

   1 more example

   If we wished to divide the quadrals into classes, there are obviously several ways in which it could be done, all of them arbitrary. The arbitrariness arises because the points exhibit no natural clustering.

   1984, E. C. Pielou, The interpretation of ecological data: a primer, page 20

3. countablerhetoricuncountableA set of four phrases, separated by pauses when speaking or commas when writing.

   The first instinctive step in revising written matter looks to an effecting of quadrals; any later revision aims at a perfecting of the rhythma.

   1925, John Hubert Scott, Rhythmic prose

   1 more example

   thanks to the rhythma, in dividing correctly many simple quadrals, in more involved sentences our arrangement shows regularly these simple quadrals expanding into "periods,"

   1932, John Hubert Scott, Zilpha Emma Chandler, Phrasal patterns in English prose, page 268

4. countableuncountableA foursome.

   I like to call 4-person interactions and relational systems 'quadrals' (845—846). Their potentially visible occurrence in encounter type groups probably varies widely, and is not often discriminated unless in groups literally composed of couples.

   1998, Godfrey T Barrett-Lennard, Carl Rogers' Helping System: Journey & Substance, →ISBN, page 162

alternative quadrual · alternative quatral

1. not comparablegrammarReferring to four (or more) things; of, in or relating to the quadral grammatical number.

   In several cases, plural pronouns clearly derive from historical trial and quadral forms.

   2014, David Christopher Kamholz, Austronesians in Papua: Diversification and Change in South-Halmahera-West New Guinea, page 120

   2 more examples

   […] in Konomala, Patpatar, Tolai, Kandas, Duke of York and Siar of New Ireland, these quadral forms have replaced the original plurals.

   1988, Malcolm Ross, Proto Oceanic and the Austronesian Languages of Western Melanesia, page 101

   In some languages, such as Kenyah, a true quadral number also occurs in the pronoun system.

   2009, Robert Blust, The Austronesian Languages, page 64

2. not comparablemathematicsOf or relating to quadral polynomials.