Number systems in Manambu

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.

Karijona is a Cariban language from Northwest Amazonia spoken by only 15 people. This paper describes the systems of grammatical number in the language. The data, collected in the Karijona settlements of Puerto Nare and La Pedrera in Colombia, were analyzed according to Basic Linguistic Theory. Karijona has a minimal-augmented number system, on which the first person inclusive have both minimal and augmented values. The number is expressed in pronouns, verbs, nouns, and postpositions.

2012

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

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

This paper presents new empirical evidence from Marori (a Papuan language of Southern New Guinea) for the semantics of number in a complex number system. Marori has a basic three-way number system, singular/dual/plural. Marori is notable for showing distributed number exponence and constructed number strategies, in sharp contrast with familiar two-way, morphologically simpler number systems in languages such as English. Unlike in English, the reference of plurals in Marori in many contexts is to a group of three or more individuals. While Marori's number system is typologically quite different from English, it shows an intriguing similarity in that in certain contexts, plural/nonsingular forms allow an inclusive reading (i.e. reference to any number of individuals, including one). The paper also presents evidence that all number types, including constructed dual, can be used for generic reference. The paper concludes with remarks on the theoretical significance of our findings.

The number system of Marori shows distributed marking across different morphological and syntactic sites. The marking regulates the interaction of nominal number (plurality of entities) and verbal number (plurality of events). Nominal number is expressed via marking of free pronouns and derived nouns and the associated verbal indexing. Nominal number shows a three-way distinction and follows the Animacy Hierarchy, with a singular-dual-plural distinction relevant only for first and second bound pronominals (i.e. in the top segments of the hierarchy). Elsewhere, nominal number marking typically shows a two-way underspecified distinction (plural vs. nonplural, or singular vs. nonsingular). Verbal number is, in contrast, expressed by suppletive verbal root alternations, not following the animacy hierarchy, and typically showing a two-way weak singular vs. nonsingular distinction. An unusual characteristic of the Marori number system is its distributed underspecified exponence in marking, allowing a specific category in nominal/verbal number to be constructed without a dedicated number marker for that category. Thus, dual (nominal number) can be expressed not by dual morphology, but by a combination of nonsingular and nonplural exponents; e.g. as seen in the expression of the second person dual (future) n-...-∅. Duactional (verbal) number is likewise expressed in the complex predicate construction by combining a nonplural (auxiliary/light) verb and a nonsingular nominal predicate. The whole system of number underspecification, verbal indexing and verbal number in Marori renders number in this language functionally semantic and pragmatic in nature, quite different from syntactic number in familiar languages like English. In Marori’s three-way number system, the meaning of plural is not quite the same as in a two-way number system like English: ‘three or more’ (Marori) vs. ‘two or more’ (English). However, while Marori is radically different from English in its number system, it exhibits similarity in terms of the distribution of plural meanings under negation and other contexts (Farkas & de Swart, 2010); inclusive and exclusive plural readings are found in the same distributional contexts as in English and other European languages with a two-way number system.

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.

Number agreement systems often present traces of older elements common to different languages of the same family; thus, their emergence is difficult to reconstruct. One possible origin of such systems is the grammaticalization of plural words into bound morphemes, which, as a result of a long process, develop into agreement markers and may become obligatory. Various investigations have provided evidence for this hypothesis. However, the complete process of change from a system with no number as grammatical category into a number agreement system in a single language has not been documented. This paper analyses documents covering different stages of the development of the Nheengatu language from Tupinambá in order to observe how the number agreement system emerged in modern Nheengatu. By doing so, this paper supports the idea that grammaticalization may have occurred rapidly in intense contact situations