The morphosyntax and semantics of cardinal numerals in classical sanskrit
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21418878 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alessandra Petrocchi (0000-0002-0085-0502, Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics University of Oxford, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 120 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 276-298 |
| Publication date | 2022-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Transactions of the Philological Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0079-1636 • E-ISSN: 1467-968X |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-968x.12236 |
| OpenAlex | W4225093371 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 10 |
A complete study of numeral syntax in Classical Sanskrit has yet to be written. Grammars provide concise, decontextualised surveys which mainly focus on the morphology of cardinal numerals. Given their textual genre, reference grammars can neither devote much space to this very topic nor give exhaustive data; very little is said about Sanskrit numeral constructions outside of this kind of resources. By combining modern linguistic frameworks and philological analysis, the following investigation is offered as a first step toward addressing this desideratum. The present analysis provides a novel approach to understand the semantics of numerals and shed some light on Sanskrit numeral syntax and the morphosyntactic properties of cardinal numerals. This research is organised as follows: I first provide a brief overview of some key features of Sanskrit numeral series and then propose a theoretical framework to conceptualise the main components of numeral systems; section 3 explores the lexicon‐prosody interface and is followed by an analysis of Sanskrit numeral constructions. Textual evidence of cardinal numerals from medieval Sanskrit mathematical works is investigated in detail. The linguistic framework employed by von Mengden (2010) to examine cardinal numerals in Old English has been particularly fruitful in the present study. I demonstrate that, unlike most other languages, Sanskrit makes extensive use of non‐systemic expressions of cardinality and that authors employ and combine a great variety of numeral constructions
Linguistics · Natural language processing · Numeral system · Sanskrit · Syntax · Artificial Intelligence · Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills · Computer Science · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Philosophy · semigroups and automata theory
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |