Chapter 6. Scalar additive operators in Transeurasian languages

This article provides a survey of scalar additive operators such as Turkish bile, Japanese sae, Korean cocha ‘even’, etc. and related expressions in a sample of thirteen Transeurasian languages. The data is presented and interpreted against the background of evidence from European languages and with the question of shared grammaticalization in mind. It is shown that Transeurasian languages differ from European ones in their systems of scalar additive operators in at least two respects. First, all languages of our sample have “general additive operators”, i.e. additive operators which are used in both scalar and nonscalar contexts. Second, Transeurasian languages show patterns of distribution which differ systematically from those characteristic of European languages. The consequences of these findings for a general typology of scalar additive operators are considered.