Word foimation in the Cardinal number systems across languages (Mathematical problems in numbers)

Authors: Hoang Thi Chau

T h e Cardinal n u m b er sy stem is ad d ressed in this p ap er as a sm all y e t ty p ic a l sign systcm in its larger sign super-system - language. The biíaceted nature of signs is clearly demonstratcd: m ost num bers have doublc m canings, one is structural \vhile the other is lexical. For instance, in Vietnamcse, the numbcr “ỉbrty four" lexically denotes “the next number aíìer 43 in natural numbcr chains'\ and structuralỉy means 4x10+4. Meamvhile, irv Prench, numbcr “80" is quatre-vingt (4x20) vvith ihc lexical nicaning o f “eighty” while it structuralỉy means “4x20”; and number “70” soixaní-dix has the structure “60+10". Deep undcr thc addition and multiplication problems mentioned abovc are mathcmatical thoughts and ỉanguages of thcse nations: thc Vietnamese is based on the dccinial numeration wlìile the French use the degisemal numeration. The data used in this analysis are rcstricted vvithin languages of ethnic minoritics in Vietnam and tvvo major language families in Southcast Asia, namely Austroasiatic and Austronesian, or to be more precisc, Austro-Tai, which are closely reỉated to the Vietnamesc ỉanguage. In order to clearly identify featurcs of word formation in the numbers of isolating, analytic ỉanguages in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, comparative and contrastive analyses have becn made against the number systcms o f Ỉndo-Europcan languagcs representative of the synthctic typoỉogy and familiar to us, incluđing French, English and German, beíore the following conclusions arc made: 1. Numbers are thc most basic vvords among the basic, i.e. the most ancicnt. The number system of each nation has been developed through a long process of thousands of years. The 10 basic vvords have transíormcd into 100 others by employing one or morc of thcse: morphological changc, aíTixation, word combination, and word order change. The numbcr systcms are highly systematic vvith fixed structure. However, partial or totaỉ borrovvings of an cntirc system are still possiblc. 2. This is an inỉtial structural investigation of the linguistic íbrm of the numeration systcms with a vievv to identifying the steps in the íormation of language and thought in a narrovv sensc. 3. The investigation of the number systcms in diíĩerent European and Asian regions, across v ario u s lan g u ag e fam ilies, hclps rev eal th e ir u n iversalities as w ell as ty p icalitics in th e ir languagc formulation and development process...

Title: Word foimation in the Cardinal number systems across languages (Mathematical problems in numbers)
Authors: Hoang Thi Chau
Issue Date: 2009
Publisher: H. : ĐHQGHN
Series/Report no.: 25, No.5E (2009) 1-11;
Description: tr. 1-11
URI: http://repository.vnu.edu.vn/handle/VNU_123/57230
Appears in Collections:Social Sciences and Humanities

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