This is an outdated version published on 08/31/2023. Read the most recent version.

Cardinal numerals in Akan: A Construction Morphology account

Authors

  • Clement Kwamina Insaidoo Appah Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6228-7137
  • Reginald Akuoko Duah University of Ghana
  • Obadele Bakari Kambon University of Ghana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v12i1.633

Keywords:

Akan, Cardinal numeral, Construction Morphology, Constructional idiom, Template unification

Abstract

This paper presents a Construction Morphology account of complex cardinal numeral formation in Akan (Kwa, Niger-Congo). Through a detailed description of the Akan numeral system, which is decimal, we identify various ranges of cardinal numerals and show that they share structures with other constructions in the language because they are either compounds or coordinate constructions. We show that, consistent with crosslinguistic patterns, the two arithmetic operations that underpin the construction of cardinal numerals in Akan are addition and multiplication and they are formally realised differently. While multiplication is achieved mainly through compounding (and reduplication), addition is expressed mainly through compounding and coordination. The Construction Morphology framework allows us to account for the full range of Akan cardinal numerals in a consistent manner, showing how numerals relate to other constructions in the language. We posit two constructional schemas for the two arithmetic operations, with various subschemas for different instantiating constructions, including some constructional idioms in which certain recurrent forms are pre-specified.

Author Biography

Clement Kwamina Insaidoo Appah, Department of Linguistics, University of Ghana

Clement Kwamina Insaidoo Appah (cappah@ug.edu.gh) is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Ghana. He holds a PhD in Linguistics from Lancaster University in the UK and was a Commonwealth Scholar (2008-2012). His research interest lies in Kwa morpho-syntax. His recent work has been in Linguistic Morphology and Morphological theory (Construction Morphology). He has published extensively on issues such as compounding, nominalization, diminutives, numeral constructions, serial verbs constructions and humor. An area of emphasis in his work has been how to account for properties of complex linguistic expressions that do not come from their constituents. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Clement_Appah / https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B8pMUnkAAAAJ&hl=en 

References

Abakah, Emmanuel Nicholas. 2004. "The Segmental and Tone Melodies of Akan." Ph.D. Dissertation, Language and Communication Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2013. "Construction Morphology: Issues in Akan Complex Nominal Morphology." PhD dissertation, Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2015. "On the Syntactic Category of Akan Compounds: A Product-Oriented Perspective." Acta Linguistica Hungarica 62(4):361-94. doi: 10.1556/064.2015.62.4.1.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2016a. "Noun-Adjective Compounds in Akan." Lingue e linguaggio XV(2):259-84. doi: 10.1418/84978.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2016b. "Akan Verb-Noun Compounds." Italian Journal of Linguistics 28(2):3-24.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2017a. "Personal Attribute Nominal Construction in Akan: A Construction Morphology Account." Legon Journal of the Humanities 28(2):49-72. doi: 10.4314/ljh.v28i2.3.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2017b. "On Holistic Properties of Morphological Constructions: The Case of Akan Verb-Verb Nominal Compounds." Acta linguistica hafniensia 49(1):12-36. doi: 10.1080/03740463.2016.1242331.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2017c. "Exocentric Compounds in Akan." Word Structure 10(2):139-72. doi: 10.3366/word.2017.0106.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo & Duah, Reginald Akuoko & Kambon, Obadele Bakari. 2017. "Akan Noun-Verb Compounds: The Exocentric Synthetic View." Language Sciences 64:1-15. doi: 10.1016/j.langsci.2017.05.001.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2019a. "Ordinal Numeral Constructions in Akan." Constructions 1/2019:1-12. doi: https://doi.org/10.24338/cons-471.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo. 2019b. "On Rank and Successor Relations: Numerical and Non-Numerical Expression of Relative Position in Akan." SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics 16(4):2-21.

Appah, Clement Kwamina Insaidoo & Broohm, Obed Nii & Lawer, Richard Ayertey. 2019. "Beyond Cardinals and Ordinals: A Constructionist Account of Other Numerals in Akan." Nordic Journal of African Studies 28(2):1-27.

Balmer, W. T. & Grant, F. C. F. 1929. A Grammar of the Fante-Akan Language. London: Atlantis Press.

Booij, Geert E. 2007. "Construction Morphology and the Lexicon." Pp. 34-44 in Selected Proceedings of the 5th Décembrettes: Morphology in Toulouse, Cascadilla Proceedings Project, edited by Montermini, Fabio & Boyé, Gilles & Hathout, Nabil. Toulouse: Cascadilla.

Booij, Geert E. 2009. "Constructions and Lexical Units: An Analysis of Dutch Numerals.". Linguistische Berichte Sonderheft 19:1-14.

Booij, Geert E. 2010. Construction Morphology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Brainerd, Barron. 1966. "Grammars for Number Names." Foundations of language 2(2):109-33.

Brainerd, Barron. 1968a. "On the Syntax of Certain Classes of Numerical Expression." Pp. 9-40 in Grammars for Number Names, edited by Brandt Corstius, Hugo. Dordrecht-Holland: D Reidel Publishing Company.

Brainerd, Barron. 1968b. "A Transformational-Generative Grammar for Romanian Numerical Expression." Pp. 41-52 in Grammars for Number Names, edited by Brandt Corstius, Hugo. Dordrecht-Holland: D Reidel Publishing Company.

Brainerd, Barron & Peng, Fred C. C. 1968. "A Syntactic Comparison of Chinese and Japanese Numerical Expressions." Pp. 53-81 in Grammars for Number Names, edited by Brandt Corstius, Hugo. Dordrecht-Holland: D Reidel Publishing Company.

Brandt Corstius, Hugo. 1968. Grammars for Number Names, Vol. 7. Dordrecht: D Reidel Publishing Company.

Bybee, Joan L. 2013. "Usage-Based Theory and Exemplar Representations of Constructions." Pp. 49-69 in The Oxford Handbook of Construction Grammar, edited by Hoffmann, Thomas & Trousdale, Graeme. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Chomsky, Noam. 1957. Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton.

Chomsky, Noam. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Christaller, Johannes Gottlieb. 1875. A Grammar of the Asante and Fante Language Called Tshi (Chwee, Twi) Based on the Akuapem Dialect with Reference to the Other (Akan and Fante) Dialects. Basel: Basel Evangelical Missionary Society.

Comrie, Bernard. 2011. "Numeral Bases." in The World Atlas of Language Structures Online, edited by Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library.

Corbett, Greville G. 1978a. "Problems in the Syntax of Slavonic Numerals." The Slavonic and East European Review 56(1):1-12.

Corbett, Greville G. 1978b. "Universals in the Syntax of Cardinal Numerals." Lingua 46(4):355-68. doi: 10.1016/0024-3841(78)90042-6.

Dehaene, Stanislas. 1997. The Number Sense. New York: Oxford University Press.

Dehaene, Stanislas. 2001. "Précis of the Number Sense." Mind & Language 16(1):16-36. doi: 10.1111/1468-0017.00154.

Dolphyne, Florence Abena. 1988. The Akan (Twi-Fante) Language: Its Sound Systems and Tonal Structure. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.

Dolphyne, Florence Abena. 1996. A Comprehensive Course in Twi (Asante) for the Non-Twi Learner. Accra: Ghana Universities Press.

Dressler, Wolfgang U. 2006. "Compound Types." Pp. 23-44 in The Representation and Processing of Compound Words, edited by Libben, Gary & Jarema, Gonia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Epps, P. 2006. "Growing a Numeral System: The Historical Development of Numerals in an Amazonian Language Family." Diachronica 23(2):259-88.

Epps, Patience & Bowern, Claire & Hansen, Cynthia A. & Hill, Jane H. & Zentz, Jason. 2012. "On Numeral Complexity in Hunter-Gatherer Language." Linguistic Typology 16(1):41-109.

Gelman, Rochel & Butterworth, Brian. 2005. "Number and Language: How Are They Related?". Trends in Cognitive Science 9(1):6-10.

Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gordon, P. 2004. "Numerical Cognition without Words: Evidence from Amazonia." Science 306(5695):496-99.

Greenberg, Joseph H. 1978. "Generalizations About Numeral Systems." Pp. 249-95 in Universals of Human Language, edited by Greenberg, Joseph H. & Ferguson, Charles A. & Moravcsik, Edith A. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.

Hurford, James R. 1975. The Linguistic Theory of Numerals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hurford, James R. 1987. Language and Number: The Emergence of a Cognitive System. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Hurford, James R. 2001. "Numeral Systems." Pp. 10756-61 in International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, edited by Smelser, N.J. & Baltes, P.B. Amsterdam: Pergamon.

Hurford, James R. 2007. "A Performed Practice Explains a Linguistic Universal: Counting Gives the Packing Strategy." Lingua 117(5):773-83.

Jackendoff, Ray S. 1997. "Twistin' the Night Away." Language 73(3):534-59.

Jackendoff, Ray S. 2002. Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.

Jackendoff, Ray S. 2008. "Construction after Construction and Its Theoretical Challenges." Language 84(1):8-28.

Jurafsky, Dan. 1992. "An on-Line Computational Model of Sentence Interpretation." dissertation, University of California, 1992. Report No. UCB/CSD 92/676, Berkeley.

Marfo, Charles Ofosu. 2004. "On Tone and Segmental Processes in Akan Phrasal Words: A Prosodic Account." Linguistik Online 18:93–110.

Merrifield, William R. 1968. "Number Names in Four Languages of Mexico." Pp. 91-102 in Grammars for Number Names, edited by Brandt Corstius, Hugo. Dordrecht-Holland: D Reidel Publishing Company.

Ofori, Seth Antwi. 2008. "Numeral Compounding in Akan (Twi): A Multi-Tiered Account." Journal of West African Languages XXXV(1-2):79-99.

Saah, Kofi K. 2004. "A Survey of Akan Adverbs and Adverbials." Journal of West African Languages XXXI(2):47-71.

Seron, Xavier & Pesenti, Mauro. 2001. "The Number Sense Theory Needs More Empirical Evidence." Mind & Language 16(1):76-88. doi: 10.1111/1468-0017.00158.

Siromoney, Rani. 1968. "Grammars for Number Names of Certain Dravidian Languages." Pp. 82-90 in Grammars for Number Names, edited by Brandt Corstius, Hugo. Dordrecht-Holland: D Reidel Publishing Company.

Spencer, Andrew. 2011. "What's in a Compound?". Journal of Linguistics 47(2):481-507.

Stampe, David. 1976. "Caridal Number Systems." Pp. 594-609 in Papers from the Twelfth Regional Meeting, Chicago Linguistics Society, April 23-25, 1976, edited by Mufwene, Salikoko S. & Walker, Carol A. & Steever, Sanford B. Chicago, Il.: Chicago Linguistics Society.

Stump, Gregory T. 2010. "The Derivation of Compound Ordinal Numerals: Implications for Morphological Theory." Word Structure 3(2):205-33. doi: 10.3366/word.2010.0005.

van Katwijk, A. 1965. "A Grammar of Dutch Number Names." Foundations of language 1(1):51-58.

van Katwijk, A. 1968. "A Functional Grammar of Dutch Number Names." Pp. 1-8 in Grammars for Number Names., edited by Brandt Corstius, Hugo Dordrecht-Holland: D Reidel Publishing Company.

von Mengden, Ferdinand. 2010. Cardinal Numerals: Old English from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.

Wiese, Heike. 2003a. "Iconic and Non-Iconic Stages in Number Development: The Role of Language." Trends in Cognitive Sciences 7(9):385-90.

Wiese, Heike. 2003b. Numbers, Language, and the Human Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wiese, Heike. 2007. "The Co-Evolution of Number Concepts and Counting Words." Lingua 117(5):758-72.

Downloads

Published

08/31/2023 — Updated on 08/31/2023

Versions

How to Cite

Appah, C., Duah, R. A., & Kambon, O. (2023). Cardinal numerals in Akan: A Construction Morphology account. Ghana Journal of Linguistics, 12(1), 48–72. https://doi.org/10.4314/gjl.v12i1.633