Numeral base, numeral classifier, and noun
Word order harmonization
Greenberg (
1990a: 292) suggests that classifiers (
clf) and numeral
bases tend to harmonize in word order, i.e. a numeral (Num) with a base-final [
n base] order appears in a
clf-final [Num
clf] order, e.g. in Mandarin Chinese,
san1-bai3 (three hundred) ‘300’ and
san1
zhi1 gou3 (three
clf
animal dog) ‘three dogs’, and a base-initial [
base n] Num appears in a
clf-initial [
clf Num]
order, e.g. in Kilivila (Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Oceanic),
akatu-tolu (hundred three) ‘300’ and
na-tolu
yena (
clf
animal-three fish) ‘three fish’. In non-classifier languages, base and noun (N) tend to harmonize in word order. We propose that
harmonization between
clf and N should also obtain. A detailed statistical analysis of a geographically and phylogenetically
weighted set of 400 languages shows that the harmonization of word order between numeral bases, classifiers, and nouns is statistically
highly significant, as only 8.25% (33/400) of the languages display violations, which are mostly located at the meeting points between
head-final and head-initial languages, indicating that language contact is the main factor in the violations to the probabilistic
universals.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Literature review
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Numeral base
- 3.2Numeral classifier
- 3.3Order of the numeral and the noun
- 4.Statistical analysis
- 4.1Numeral base and order between the numeral and the noun
- 4.2Numeral base and numeral classifier
- 4.3Classifier and order between the numeral and the noun
- 4.4Overview and preliminary analysis
- 5.Discussion
- 5.1Examples of word order harmonization
- 5.2Examples of word order disharmonization in classifier languages
- 5.3Examples of word order disharmonization in non-classifier languages
- 5.4Summary
- 6.Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
References
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Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Her, One-Soon & Bing-Tsiong Li
Her, One-Soon, Harald Hammarström & Marc Allassonnière-Tang
2022.
Defining numeral classifiers and identifying classifier languages of the world.
Linguistics Vanguard 8:1
► pp. 151 ff.
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