Grammars for Number Names (Foundations of Language Supplementary Series)

The present book collects seven studies on the grammatical aspects of number names. No attempt has been made to unify the notation, but all authors work from a generative viewpoint. Each contribution chosen gives more than just a description of the number name system in a certain language. Thus, the linguist interested in simplicity, types of transformations, functional rules, tagmemic rules, comparisons be­ tween languages, or language universals may profit from this collection. H. BRANDT CORSTIUS v T ABLE OF CONTENTS A. V AN KA TWIJ K / A Functional Grammar of Dutch Number Names 1 BARRON BRAINERD / On the Syntax of Certain Classes of Numerical Expressions 9 BARRON BRAINERD / A Transformational-Generative Grammar for Rumanian Numerical Expressions 41 BARRON BRAINERD and FRED C. C. PENG / A Syntactic Comparison of Chinese and Japanese Numerical Expressions 53 RANI SIROMONEY / Grammars of Number Names of Certain Dravidian Languages 82 WILLIAM R. MERRIFIELD / Number Names in Four Languages of Mexico 91 HUGO BRANDT CORSTIUS / Automatic Translation between Number Names 103 VII A. VAN KATWIJK A FUNCTIONAL GRAMMAR OF DUTCH NUMBER NAMES At the present time there are quite a number of generative grammars for numerical expressions. Brainerd (1967) even mentions the possibility of giving "a complete description of systems of numerical expressions in any language", where the transformation theory of number names provides a framework for discussions of a number of universals. He also refers to the advantages of completeness of descriptions being possible in these grammars.