Number and quantity in East Nusantara: papers from 12-ICAL, Volume 1 (edited volume, co-edited with Marian Klamer) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Humans, 2024
Wu, Shiyue, and Francesco Perono Cacciafoco. 2024. Understanding through the Numbers: Number Systems, Their Evolution, and Their Perception among Kula People from Alor Island, Southeastern Indonesia, Humans, 4, 1: 34-49. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/humans4010003 - This paper aims at documenting and reconstructing the linguistic processes generating and substantiating the use of number systems, numbers in general, elementary arithmetic, and the related concepts and notions among the Kula people from Alor Island, Southeastern Indonesia. The Kula is a Papuan population from the Alor–Pantar Archipelago (Timor area). The name of their language, Kula (or Kola), corresponds to the ethnonym. The language is, currently, endangered and not completely documented. At the level of linguistic features, numeral systems and the terms for numerals from Eastern Alor exhibit, to some extent, unique characteristics, if compared to other languages spoken in other sectors of the island. Therefore, the Kula numbering system is not only significant at the lexicological and lexicographic level, but also represents the essential role of cognitive strategies (e.g., the choice of the base for the numbering systems and the visual representation of counting with the aid of actual ‘objects’, like hands and fingers) in the coinage of numerical terms among the local speakers. Indeed, the development of numeral systems reflects the evolution of human language and the ability of humans to construct abstract numerical concepts. The way numerals are encoded and expressed in a language can impact the patterns according to which numerical notions are conceptualized and understood. Different numeral systems can indicate variations in cognitive processes involving notions of quantities and measurements. Therefore, the structure and characteristics of a numeral system may affect how numeral concepts are mentally represented and developed. This paper focuses on the number system of the Kula people and the lexical units used by the local speakers to indicate (and to explain) the numbers, with the related concepts, notions, and symbolism. The investigation delves into the degrees of abstraction of the Kula numeral system and tries to ascertain its origins and reconstruct it. Moreover, the article applies to the analysis a comparative approach, which takes into account several Papuan and Austronesian languages from Alor Island and Eastern Timor, with the dual aim of investigating, at a preliminary level, a possible common evolution and/or divergent naming processes in local numbering systems and their historical–linguistic and etymological origins. - Keywords: anthropological linguistics; language documentation; numbering systems; Kula language (Lantoka/Lamtoka-Tanglapui); Alor Island
Nominal number in Balinese varies in expression. All Balinese pronouns are singular, in violation of Greenberg's Universal 42 ("All languages have pronominal categories involving at least three persons and two numbers"). Nonreduplicated common nouns have general number, and regular and associative plural constructions allow for expression of nominal plurality. Common nouns can also be reduplicated, which often (but not always) indicates plural meaning. In the verbal domain, reduplication is a derivational process which can imply rather than encode plural meaning. We also examine the semantics of nominal plurality in Balinese and the availability of inclusive/exclusive plural readings. Keywords: Balinese, pluractionality, reduplication, associative plurality, inclusive/exclusive plurality
Change in Traditional Numerals Systems in Mian and other Trans New Guinea Languages
Language and Linguistics in Melanesia (special issue), 2012
This paper examines the numeral systems and the change in these systems in the Papuan language Mian (Trans New Guinea, Ok family) due to the influence of Tok Pisin. Mian has a binary numeral system consisting of a word for 'one' and a word for 'two'. As in other Trans New Guinea languages, there is also a body-part tally system in which certain points on the arms, the upper body, and the head and face are associated with numbers. The highest number in the Mian body-part system is 27. With the advent of western cash economy and currency Tok Pisin numerals and the decimal system have taken hold in the community and spread quickly. While the old binary system is still in use for both counting and modification of a noun in a noun phrase, the body-part tally system is defunct. This is in contrast to some other Trans New Guinea languages, for example Kalam and Oksapmin, in which the body-part system is still employed by older speakers. There is no evidence that the terms of the Mian body-part system have ever been used as numerals in the noun phrase. I suggest that the Mian system had a particularly hard time in surviving because it was restricted to the counting of temporal units even at the time when the linguistic work on Mian began.
Expressions of quantity in the Amanuban dialect of Uab Meto, with Jakob Metboki
Number and quantity in East Nusantara: Papers from 12-ICAL, 2014
This volume showcases the expression of number and quantity in a dozen minority languages spoken in Eastern Indonesia. While several papers offer a typological and comparative perspective, most contributions provide detailed descriptions of the numeral systems, universal quantifiers, classifiers, and the expression of nominal and verbal number in individual languages.
We examine the morphology, syntax, and semantics of number in Balinese. All Balinese pronouns are singular, and non-reduplicated common nouns have general number. Regular and associative plural constructions allow for expression of nominal plurality. Common nouns can also be reduplicated, which often (but not always) indicates plural meaning. In the verbal domain, reduplication generally marks pluractionality. We show that reduplication is a derivational process which can imply rather than encode plural meaning. We also explore parallels between nominal and verbal plurality, examining inclusive/exclusive plural readings in nominal and verbal domains, and associative pluractionality in the verbal domain.
Innovative Numerals in Malayo-Polynesian Languages outside of Oceania
In this paper, we seek to draw attention to Malayo-Polynesian languages outside of the Oceanic subgroup with innovative bases and complex numerals involving various additive, subtractive, and multiplicative procedures. We highlight the fact that the number of languages showing such innovations is more than previously recognized in the literature. Finally, we observe that the concentration of complex numeral innovations in the region of eastern Indonesia suggests Papuan influence, either through contact or substrate. However, we also note that sociocultural factors, in the form of numeral taboos and conventionalized counting practices, may have played a role in driving innovations in numerals.
Numeral words and arithmetic operations in the Alor-Pantar languages
The indigenous numerals of the AP languages, as well as the indigenous structures for arithmetic operations are currently under pressure from Indonesian, and will inevitably be replaced with Indonesian forms and structures. This chapter presents a documentary record of the forms and patterns currently in use to express numerals and arithmetic operations in the Alor-Pantar languages. We describe the structure of cardinal, ordinal and distributive numerals, and how operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and fractions are expressed.
Numeral classifiers and number in two Papuan outliers of East Nusantara
Number and Quantity in East Nusantara, ed. by M. Klamer and F. Kratochvíl, 79-102. , 2014
This chapter compares numeral classifiers in Tobelo (ISO 639-3 tlb, North Halmaheran) and Western Pantar (ISO 639-3 lev, Timor-Alor-Pantar), two genealogically unrelated Papuan outliers spoken in East Nusantara. While both languages make extensive use of numeral classifiers, the number of semantic categories delineated by these classifiers is much more restricted in Western Pantar. Moreover, the two languages carve up semantic space quite differently. The languages also differ in terms of grammaticization of numeral classifiers. In this respect Western Pantar classifiers behave much more like lexical items, retaining lexical denotation alongside their classifier function. In contrast, Tobelo classifiers are generally obligatory and may have no independent lexical use.
When number meets classification: The linguistic expression of number in Baïnounk languages
Studies in Language Companion Series, 2014
This paper presents an account of number marking in two Baïnounk languages, Gubëeher and Gujaher, also taking data from the Baïnounk language Guñaamolo into account. Number distinctions in these languages are coded epiphenominally through the paradigmatic relationships and combinatorial semantics of prefixes and roots within the nominal classification system. In addition, number can be marked through a dedicated plural suffix of the form -Vŋ. In line with observations made for Bantu and other Atlantic languages, we analyse number marking within the noun class system (and, to some extent also through the number suffix) as derivational, not inflectional. Additionally, we demonstrate that number values do not reside in noun class prefixes themselves, but arise through the paradigmatic relationships holding between prefix and root and between prefix-root combinations in a paradigm. This account goes against a widespread analytical template of assigning singular and plural values to prefixes and assuming number correspondences between them.