Universal #547
Legacy number: 547
| Number | 545 |
| Original | The degree of morphological fusion varies inversely with the size of the numerical value. |
| Standardized | The degree of morphological fusion varies inversely with the size of the numerical value. |
| Keywords | numeral |
| Domain | word formation |
| Type | implication |
| Status | achronic |
| Quality | absolute |
| Basis | 56 languages mentioned in Greenberg 1978a |
| Source | Greenberg 1978a: 281 (#39) |
Discussion
Counterexamples
See comments, and also French: (80 to 99 not as expectable - and in Swiss variants also existent - ‘huitant’ to ‘neuvantneuf’, but as ‘quatre-vingt’ [4x20] to ‘quatre-vingt-dix-neuf’ [4x20]+10+9).
Notes
1. According to Greenberg (1978a: 281), this generalization has been stated quite vaguely. It could have been broken down into a whole series of implicational generalizations, e.g. if a product containing a particular base is a single word, so is every product containing a smaller base.2. Comrie 1997: 50 suggests this universal should be considered “a tendency rather than to an absolute rule. In English, the most irregular teens, namely ‘eleven’ and ‘twelve’, are indeed the lowest numerically. But in Russian, the teens, 20-30 and 50-80, show two distinct but clear patterns, while 40 is completely idiosyncratic, and 90 (‘devjanosto’ for expected ‘devjat’ desjat’, found elsewhere in East Slavonic languages) is partially idiosyncratic.
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2. Comrie 1997: 50 suggests this universal should be considered "a tendency rather than to an absolute rule. In English, the most irregular teens, namely 'eleven' and 'twelve', are indeed the lowest numerically. But in Russian, the teens, 20-30 and 50-80, show two distinct but clear patterns, while 40 is completely idiosyncratic, and 90 ('devjanosto' for expected 'devjat' desjat', found elsewhere in East Slavonic languages) is partially idiosyncratic".