On numeral complexity in hunter-gatherer languages

Epps, Patience; Bowern, Claire; Hansen, Cynthia A.; Hill, Jane H.; Zentz, Jason

doi:10.1515/lity-2012-0002

Cited by 48 publications

(41 citation statements)

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“…Countless material technologies are dependent on the ability to precisely differentiate quantities greater than three, and many cultural practices are obviously dependent on the innovation or adoption of number words and counting. This finding is consistent with the worldwide correlation, albeit a weak one, observed between a culture's subsistence strategy and the complexity of its number system (Epps et al 2012). We would not predict a pervasive association between these factors, in part since almost all groups have some number system that allows, at the least, for the differentiation of small quantities.…”

Section: Future Pathssupporting

confidence: 89%

Sounding the depths at the confluence of numerosity and language

Everett

2014

Linguistics Vanguard

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Researchers in a variety of disciplines are currently exploring how number words and other culturally variant symbols for quantities enable and enhance numerical cognition. In this article I survey the ways in which fieldwork among Amazonian languages is helping to elucidate the relationship between numerical cognition and language. I highlight several noteworthy findings in recent work on this topic, address their implications, and also consider the potential of future fieldwork on languages with typologically remarkable number systems.

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Section: Future Pathssupporting

confidence: 89%

Sounding the depths at the confluence of numerosity and language

Everett

2014

Linguistics Vanguard

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“…These findings make sense in a model of language change where new elements in a numeral system are created and renewed analogically to other numerals. An alternative would be where speakers of languages recruit opaque terms from other domains [15]. This is the usual source of words for '5', which frequently originate in words for 'hand' in Pama-Nyungan languages (infrequently, words for 5 based on '3 þ 2' are found).…”

Section: Results (A) Extentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, while there is variation in both the composition and the extent of the systems, that variation is highly constrained. Low-limit numeral systems are not unique to Australian languages, but are characteristic of hunter-gatherer societies throughout the world, which presumably have a lesser functional need for a more general system [15]. Variation in Australian numeral systems stems not only from the systems' upper extents but also from whether larger numbers are composed of smaller numbers (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…3 ¼ 2 þ 1, 4 ¼ 2 þ 2, etc. ; compare English 'twenty-five') or show unanalysable, opaque etymology (such as English 'three' and 'four') [15,16]. While previous work [16,17] recognizes some variation in the extent of lowlimit numeral systems, there has not been any investigation into how low-limit systems change over time, particularly with respect to their upper limits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantifying uncertainty in the phylogenetics of Australian numeral systems

Zhou

Bowern

2015

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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Researchers have long been interested in the evolution of culture and the ways in which change in cultural systems can be reconstructed and tracked. Within the realm of language, these questions are increasingly investigated with Bayesian phylogenetic methods. However, such work in cultural phylogenetics could be improved by more explicit quantification of reconstruction and transition probabilities. We apply such methods to numerals in the languages of Australia. As a large phylogeny with almost universal 'lowlimit' systems, Australian languages are ideal for investigating numeral change over time. We reconstruct the most likely extent of the system at the root and use that information to explore the ways numerals evolve. We show that these systems do not increment serially, but most commonly vary their upper limits between 3 and 5. While there is evidence for rapid system elaboration beyond the lower limits, languages lose numerals as well as gain them. We investigate the ways larger numerals build on smaller bases, and show that there is a general tendency to both gain and replace 4 by combining 2 þ 2 (rather than inventing a new unanalysable word 'four'). We develop a series of methods for quantifying and visualizing the results.

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“…This may be related, for instance, to the experience of reading the more complex Chinese characters, as compared to the English ones (Tang et al, 2006). Together, this evidence points to a crucial mediation role played by cultural practices (Calude & Verkerk, 2016;Epps, Bowern, Hansen, Hill, & Zentz, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

The use of number words in natural language obeys Weber’s law.

Rinaldi¹,

Marelli²

2020

Journal of Experimental Psychology: General

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It has been suggested that the origins of number words can be traced back to an evolutionarily ancient approximate number system, which represents quantities on a compressed scale and complies with Weber's law. Here, we use a data-driven computational model, which learns to predict one event (a word in a text corpus) from associated events, to characterize verbal behavior relative to number words in natural language, without appeal to perception. We show that the way humans use number words in spontaneous language reliably depends on numerical ratio -a clear signature of Weber's law -thus perfectly mirroring the human and non-human psychophysical performance in comparative judgments of numbers. Most notably, the adherence to Weber's law is robustly replicated in a wide range of different languages. Together, these findings suggest that the everyday use of number words in language rests upon a pre-verbal approximate number system, which would thus affect the handling of numerical information not only at the input level but also at the level of verbal production.

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On numeral complexity in hunter-gatherer languages

Cited by 48 publications

References 0 publications

Sounding the depths at the confluence of numerosity and language

Sounding the depths at the confluence of numerosity and language

Quantifying uncertainty in the phylogenetics of Australian numeral systems

The use of number words in natural language obeys Weber’s law.

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