Universal 1351:
- Original
- Every superessive or possessive augend is a serialized augend.
- Standardized
- In numeral systems, every superessive or possessive augend is a serialized augend.
- Keywords
- numeral
- Domain
- word formation
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- 56 languages mentioned in Greenberg 1978a
- Source
- Greenberg 1978a: 266 (#17)
- Counterexamples
1. By serialization Greenberg means: Whenever there are at least two successive numbers ‘x’, ‘x+1’…, such that each is expressed as the sum of some constant ‘y’ and ‘z’, ‘z+1’ …, respectively, ‘y’ is an augend by serialization. For example in English, let ‘x’ be ‘twenty-one’, ‘y+1’ be ‘twenty-two’, etc. The numbers are expressed as (2×10)+1, (2×10)+2, etc., respectively. Hence 20 is the augend by serialization in these expressions, and 1, 2 … are addends. The augend may have either simple lexical representation or be internally complex (cf. #1352), as with 20 = 2×10 in this example.2. By superessive vs. possessive augend Greenberg means the following:There is a word or affix meaning ‘upon’. It will be called a superessive link. By its very meaning it would seem to go with the augend. If we add three items to ten, then three are put on the heap of ten and not vice versa. ‘Under’ never occurs as a link. (…) An invariant relation also holds with the rather rare ‘possessive link’, e.g. Quechua (Andean) 11 which is ‘cunka ukni-yug’ ‘ten one-having’ which parallels Mountain Nubian (Eastern Sudanic) with 11 ‘ten one-having’, i.e. ‘ten’ which possesses a ‘one’.See also ##1356, 1359.