Indefinite numerals ONE and MANY and the cause of ordinal suppletion

• Autores: Sjef Barbiers
• Localización: Lingua: International review of general linguistics, ISSN 0024-3841, Vol. 117, Nº 5, 2007, págs. 859-880
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Many languages have a suppletive instead of a regular derivational form for the ordinal first (cf. Hurford, 1987; Veselinova, 1998). This paper argues on the basis of Dutch that this obligatory suppletion is not an idiosyncratic irregularity or a historical relic, but derives from the feature composition of cardinal numeral one which sets one apart from the other cardinal numerals and makes it incompatible with the ordinal suffix -th. To express the notion of first, Dutch uses a superlative. Although the feature composition of many blocks regular ordinal formation as well, a superlative suppletive form is not needed if the missing feature is added by so; regular ordinal formation based on so many is possible. On the basis of a detailed comparison of the morphosyntactic properties of one, many and the plural cardinals a novel feature system for numerals is proposed that captures the similarities between one and many on the one hand and the plural cardinals on the other, as well as the differences between one and many. The distinct morphosyntactic behavior of one as compared to the plural cardinals is shown to correspond in a one-to-one fashion with the distinct mathematical properties of one