The grammaticalization cline of cardinal numerals and numeral systems
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Ferdinand von Mengden
Abstract
This paper investigates the grammaticalization of cardinal numerals and numeral systems from a crosslinguistic perspective. The grammaticalization cline postulated here starts with a referential expression denoting a body part to a cardinal numeral and leads on to a functional affix which occurs in numeral systems and marks arithmetical operations in complex numeral expressions (e.g. English -teen in fifteen or -ty in fifty). The paper also shows that the numerals of the lowest cardinalities may follow a path different from that of the other simple numerals: they may evolve from pronominal elements, such as demonstratives and determiners, which often derive themselves from the cardinal numeral ‘1.’ The fact that low numerals and pronominal elements can be both each other’s sources and each other’s targets seems to challenge the unidirectionality of grammaticalization.
Abstract
This paper investigates the grammaticalization of cardinal numerals and numeral systems from a crosslinguistic perspective. The grammaticalization cline postulated here starts with a referential expression denoting a body part to a cardinal numeral and leads on to a functional affix which occurs in numeral systems and marks arithmetical operations in complex numeral expressions (e.g. English -teen in fifteen or -ty in fifty). The paper also shows that the numerals of the lowest cardinalities may follow a path different from that of the other simple numerals: they may evolve from pronominal elements, such as demonstratives and determiners, which often derive themselves from the cardinal numeral ‘1.’ The fact that low numerals and pronominal elements can be both each other’s sources and each other’s targets seems to challenge the unidirectionality of grammaticalization.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Address list vii
- Preface ix
- Introduction: New perspectives on grammaticalization 1
- Grammaticalization and the areal factor: The perspective of East and mainland Southeast Asian languages 15
- On the grammaticalization of 'come' and 'go' into markers of textual connectivity 37
- Grammaticalization, typology and semantics: Expanding the agenda 61
- Mismatch: Grammar distortion and grammaticalization 103
- Areal convergence in grammaticalization processes 129
- The grammaticalization of nominalizers in Japanese and Korean: A contrastive study 169
- On the frills of grammaticalization 189
- Nominalizations in Bodic languages 219
- On the rise and fall of Korean nominalizers 239
- The grammaticalization of clausal nominalizers in Burmese 265
- The grammaticalization cline of cardinal numerals and numeral systems 289
- The development of nominalizers in East Asian and Tibeto-Burman languages 309
- Index of names 343
- Index of languages 348
- Index of subjects 350
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Address list vii
- Preface ix
- Introduction: New perspectives on grammaticalization 1
- Grammaticalization and the areal factor: The perspective of East and mainland Southeast Asian languages 15
- On the grammaticalization of 'come' and 'go' into markers of textual connectivity 37
- Grammaticalization, typology and semantics: Expanding the agenda 61
- Mismatch: Grammar distortion and grammaticalization 103
- Areal convergence in grammaticalization processes 129
- The grammaticalization of nominalizers in Japanese and Korean: A contrastive study 169
- On the frills of grammaticalization 189
- Nominalizations in Bodic languages 219
- On the rise and fall of Korean nominalizers 239
- The grammaticalization of clausal nominalizers in Burmese 265
- The grammaticalization cline of cardinal numerals and numeral systems 289
- The development of nominalizers in East Asian and Tibeto-Burman languages 309
- Index of names 343
- Index of languages 348
- Index of subjects 350
