Universal 1348:
- Original
- A subtrahend is always a simple lexical expression.
- Standardized
- In numeral systems, a subtrahend is always a simple lexical expression.
- Keywords
- numeral
- Domain
- word formation
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- absolute
- Basis
- 56 languages mentioned in Greenberg 1978a
- Source
- Greenberg 1978a: 260 (#13)
- Counterexamples
1. The subtrahend is the number subtracted, the minuend the number from which subtraction takes place, and the remainder is the result.2. By the term ‘lexical expression’ Greenberg means: Every numeral expresses a number as a function with one or more numbers as arguments. ‘Twenty-three’ in English expresses 23 as a function (a x b) + c in which the argument ‘a’ has the value 10, ‘b’ the value 2, and ‘c’ the value 3. A limiting case is the identity function which has the same value as its argument, e.g. ‘three’ = 3. If this is the case, we may say that a particular number receives simple lexical representation, none other than the identity function (cf. #530).3. According to this implication, numerals like ‘two from twenty’ (where the subtrahend, ‘two’, is simple) are possible, numerals like ‘four-teen from twenty’ (where the subtrahend is complex) are ruled out.4. Whereas the subtrahend may not be complex, the minuend may be. For example in Yoruba (Defoid, Benue-Congo) 65 is [(20×4)-10]-5, in which there are two complex minuends, (20×4) and (20×4)-10.