Universal 152: noun-like inflection and syntax (lower numerals) ⇒ noun-like inflection and syntax (higher numerals); adjectival inflection and syntax (higher numerals) ⇒ adjectival inflection and syntax (lower numerals)
Original
The syntactic behaviour of simple cardinal numerals will always fall between that of adjectives and nouns. If the simple cardinal numerals of a given language vary in their syntactic behaviour, the numerals showing nounier behaviour will denote higher numerals than those with less nouny behaviour.
Standardized
IF lower simple cardinal numerals have noun-like inflection and syntax, THEN so do higher numerals. IF higher simple cardinal numerals have adjectival inflection and syntax, THEN so do lower numerals.
1. Corbett 1978: 70: The crucial case would be a language with simple cardinals, the lower of which showed a clear feature of noun-like behavior and the higher a feature of adjectival behavior. 2. Corbett 1978: 73: “Greenberg states (1972: 6): ‘It is particularly common for classifiers not to occur with higher units of the numerical system and their multiples, e.g. 10, 20, 60, 100, 300.’ This is precisely what we would predict: the higher the numeral, the more noun-like it will be and therefore the less need it will have of a noun-like prop to maintain the parallelism with other quantified expressions.”3. Cf. also #1365.4. If higher numerals are noun-like, this may of course be due to their being, or deriving from, nouns. Which gives the universal a diachronic dimension.
1. Corbett 1978: 70: The crucial case would be a language with simple cardinals, the lower of which showed a clear feature of noun-like behavior and the higher a feature of adjectival behavior. 2. Corbett 1978: 73: “Greenberg states (1972: 6): ‘It is particularly common for classifiers not to occur with higher units of the numerical system and their multiples, e.g. 10, 20, 60, 100, 300.’ This is precisely what we would predict: the higher the numeral, the more noun-like it will be and therefore the less need it will have of a noun-like prop to maintain the parallelism with other quantified expressions.”3. Cf. also #1365.4. If higher numerals are noun-like, this may of course be due to their being, or deriving from, nouns. Which gives the universal a diachronic dimension.