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On the category and morphosyntax of numerals

ORCiD logo with link | Leiden University
ORCiD logo with link | Leiden University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

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Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Leiden University.

Published online: 29 August 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.24047.mor
Abstract
This paper investigates the morphosyntax of numerals. Based on Russian and Dutch, we show that a division into three subcategories is necessary: (i) numeral ONE;
(ii) Cardinals ≥ TWO; (iii) Indefinite Numerals such as MANY (cf., . 2007. Indefinite numerals ONE and MANY and the cause of ordinal suppletion. Lingua 117(5). 859–880. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). We introduce a bi-partite structure, in which a low Classifier projection is connected to a high Classifier projection by an (abstract) preposition. Building on Borer, Hagit. 2005. Structuring sense volume I: In name only. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2007. Indefinite numerals ONE and MANY and the cause of ordinal suppletion. Lingua 117(5). 859–880. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, 2019. Some thoughts on one and two and other numerals. In Ludovico Franco & Paolo Lorusso (eds.), Linguistic Variation: Structure and Interpretation, 335–356. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, Corver, Norbert. 2021. Adverbial -s as last resort. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 40(4). 1023–1073. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar we argue that ONE is an underspecified lower classifier, exhibiting meaningful parallels with the underspecified anchoring head at the clausal level (cf., Ritter, Elizabeth & Martina Wiltschko. 2009. Varieties of INFL: Tense, location, and person. In Jeroen van Craenenbroeck (ed.), Alternatives to Cartography, 153–202. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter Mouton. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar, . 2014. The composition of INFL. NLLT 321. 1331–1386. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). Cardinals are phrasal. Indefinite Numerals are subject to variation in whether they head ClassP-low or ClassP-high. Based on the morphosyntactic properties of the three categories we conclude that in some environments the PP and ClassP-high layers are not projected.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Proposal
  • 3.Direct evidence for the proposed structure
    • 3.1Word order in Hebrew
    • 3.2ONE and cardinals in Russian
    • 3.3Evidence for ClassP-high in Russian
      • 3.2.1Classifiers
      • 3.2.2Approximative inversion
    • 3.4P head in Dutch quantitatives
  • 4.ONE as an underspecified low classifier
    • 4.1Dutch place ONE: Complementary distribution between één ‘one’ and -en
    • 4.2Dutch quantitative diminutive
    • 4.3ONE and collective numerals
      • 4.3.1Dutch
      • 4.3.2Russian
    • 4.4Two types of IndNums
    • 4.5Russian time ONE and classifier analysis of TWO, THREE and FOUR
  • 5.Explaining some other observations
  • 6.Consequences and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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