{"id":1674,"date":"2011-08-07T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2011-07-28T10:13:47","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T08:13:47","slug":"cardinal-numerals-in-old-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=1674","title":{"rendered":"Cardinal numerals in Old English"},"content":{"rendered":"
Cardinal numerals: <\/strong>Old English from a cross-linguistic perspective. By Ferdinand von Mengden<\/strong>. <\/strong>(Topics in English linguistics 67.) Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2010. Pp. xiii, 329. ISBN 9783110220346<\/a>. $150 (Hb).<\/div>\n

Reviewed by Peter Freeouf<\/a>, <\/strong>Chiang Mai University<\/em><\/p>\n

While there is a one-to-one semantic equivalence in numerals across languages, there is considerable diversity in their morphosyntactic features, even in languages as similar to English as Danish and French. Cardinal numerals are lexically unique in that each numeral in a language generally has an exact equivalent in other languages. This contrasts with other semantic fields (e.g. kinship and color terms).<\/p>\n

This study of Old English (OE) cardinal numerals is an attempt to formulate a coherent descriptive framework for language-specific analyses of numeral systems. The morphosyntactic features of numerals are the focus of the book. In the introduction the author sets out the study of numerals, not as individual lexical items but as a series or sequence of items in an interrelated system or \u2018independent lexical class\u2019 (9).<\/p>\n

Ch. 1 (12\u201371) establishes rigorous definitions and terminology for the linguistic analysis of cardinal numerals. An important issue is the relationship between the concepts \u2018number\u2019 and \u2018numeral\u2019. Regular and idiosyncratic formations are discussed in detail, with examples from many languages, mainly Indo-European. Terms introduced here include \u2018atoms\u2019 for the basic numerals (\u2018one\u2019 through \u2018nine\u2019), \u2018bases\u2019 (e.g. \u2018ten,\u2019 \u2018hundred\u2019, \u2018thousand\u2019), and multiples of \u2018bases\u2019. A rather complex terminology is employed but each term is carefully and exactly defined.<\/p>\n

Ch. 2 (72\u2013128) gives a detailed account of the morphology of OE numerals up to \u2018thousand\u2019. One section treats the historical development of OE numerals from proto-Indo-European through proto-Germanic, and the concluding part deals with the OE ordinal numerals.<\/p>\n

Ch. 3 (129\u201377) deals with the internal syntactic structure of complex numeral expressions and their position in quantified NPs. An important feature of this chapter is the establishment of criteria for determining to what extent the numeral systems of OE and other languages are decimal systems. The author concludes that the Germanic languages and Lithuanian employ decimal systems, and that supposed duodecimal and vigesimal influence can be explained in decimal terms. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how OE expressed numbers higher than 999,999.<\/p>\n

Ch. 4 (178\u2013247) focuses on the syntactic relationship between numeral expressions and other clause constituents. The chapter surveys previous syntactic studies of OE numerals (180\u201389) and proposes five types of \u2018quantificational constructions\u2019 (189\u2013247). Ch. 5 (248\u201385) considers how to best classify cardinal numerals as a part of speech and proposes that cardinal numerals form an independent word \u2018class of their own\u2019 (249) rather than subclasses of nouns or adjectives. An extensive bibliography is provided of primary OE texts and collections as well as secondary linguistic studies of numerals.<\/p>\n

This intellectually demanding work presents an exhaustive coverage of the numeral system of a relatively well-attested older language and develops an analytical framework applicable to other languages. It is a solid treatment of the complex topic of cardinal numerals in language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cardinal numerals: Old English from a cross-linguistic perspective. By Ferdinand von Mengden. (Topics in English linguistics 67.) Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2010. Pp. xiii, 329. ISBN 9783110220346. $150 (Hb). Reviewed by Peter Freeouf, Chiang Mai University While there is a one-to-one semantic equivalence in numerals across languages, there is considerable diversity in their morphosyntactic features, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1675,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions\/1675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}