Query Details

Query Subject:	Quantifier-floating Numerals
Author:	Dustin Chacón
Submitter Email:	click here to access email

Linguistic LingField(s):	Morphology Syntax Typology

Query:	Hi everyone, I have seen in a handful of languages the ability to strand numerals in a manner reminiscent of quantifier float in English. For example, in Bengali, the following is possible: chele kalke dujon bangladeshe jabe boy tomorrow two.Cl to Bangladesh will go ''tomorrow, two boys will go to Bangladesh'' However, the only languages im familiar with that do something like this are head-final classifier languages. I'm curious to see how widespread of a phenomenon this is, and whether it might be tied in some meaningful way to numeral classifier marking, head finality, or both. Is this possible in your pet language(s)? What does number marking look like in that language, are there numeral classifiers, and what is the (predominant) word order like? Are you aware of any meaningful semantic distinctions between num-floating and not? I'd be more than happy to write a summary of what you kind folks tell me. Thanks! Dustin Chacón
LL Issue:	22.2747
Date posted:	05-Jul-2011
Back

Sums main page

New from Cambridge University Press!