Abstract
This paper addresses the issue of the reported optional character of numeral classifiers in Classical and Colonial Nahuatl. On the basis of the qualitative assessment of the co-occurrence of numerals with classifiers or zero in constructions which serve the purpose of quantifying or ordinally ranking NPs, the optionality hypothesis is assessed. The question is raised whether or not the presence and absence of classifiers is arbitrary or triggered by formal and/or functional factors. To this end, empirical evidence of the phenomena under review has been gathered from a selection of texts of the colonial era. Quantitative findings based on the Codex Florentinus are presented too. The discussion of these data uncovers that the classifier system of Classical and Colonial Nahuatl does not lend itself to a straightforward characterization so that further investigations are called for.
Abbreviations
- a
absolutive
- acl
auto-classifier
- adj
adjective
- ant
antecessive
- app
applicative
- caus
causative
- ccn
Classical and Colonial Nahuatl
- det
determiner
- dim
diminutive
- dir
directional
- dis
distal
- dp
determiner phrase
- fut
future
- h
human
- imperf
imperfective
- inal
inalienable
- itv
itive
- lig
ligature
- loc
locative
- neg
negation
- NP
noun phrase
- oc
ordinal construction
- o3d
object 3rd person (singular) definite
- o3pd
object 3rd person plural definite
- ohi
object human indefinite
- onhi
object nonhuman indefinite
- p
plural
- pass
passive
- por
possessor
- poss
possessee
- pret
preterite
- prox
proximal
- ptcl
particle
- ptcpl
participle
- qp
quantifier phrase
- red
reduplication
- refl
reflexive
- s
singular
- vbl
verbalizer
- auto-classifiers
dayacl, placeacl, yearacl
- classifiers
cobcl=cob-class, mouthcl=mouth-class, rockcl=rock-class, rowcl=row-class, thingcl-=thing-class
- twenties
bundle20, finished20, ordered20, pile20
Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to José Antonio Flores Farfán for giving me the opportunity to look again at a subject matter which I had studied sixteen years ago without exhausting the topic to my own satisfaction. I am also indebted to Sonja Kettler, Nataliya Levkovych and Maja Robbers for lending me a hand with the technical aspects of this paper. Emil Flores Bolle kindly proofread the paper. A word of thanks goes to Francisco Barriga Puente and Alexandra Aikhenvald for their thought provoking comments. No matter how many people tried to think things over and over again, I assume the sole responsibility for everything that is said in this study.
Primary sources
Beyond the Codices= Anderson, Arthur J. O., Frances Berdan & James Lockhart. 1976. Beyond the codices. The Nahua view of Colonial Mexico. Berkeley & Los Angeles & London: University of California Press.10.1525/9780520320826Search in Google Scholar
Codex Florentinus= Anderson, Arthur J. O. & Charles E. Dibble. 1970–1982. Florentine Codex. General history of the things of New Spain. Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. vol. 12. Santa Fé & New Mexico, Salt Lake City & Utah: The School of American Research.Search in Google Scholar
Colhuacan= Lehmann, Walter & Gerdt Kutscher. 1974. Die Geschichte der Königreiche von Colhuacan und Mexico. Stuttgart etc.: Kohlhammer.Search in Google Scholar
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2000. Classifiers. A typology of noun categorization devices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Andrews, J. Richard. 2003. Introduction to Classical Nahuatl, Revised edition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Search in Google Scholar
Benton, Richard A. 1968. Numeral and attributive classifiers in Trukese. Oceanic Linguistics 7. 104–146.10.2307/3622896Search in Google Scholar
Buschmann, Eduard & Wilhelm von Humboldt. 1994. Wörterbuch der mexicanischen Sprache. Paderborn: Schöningh.Search in Google Scholar
Buschmann, Eduard & Wilhelm von Humboldt. 2000. Wörterbuch der mexicanischen Sprache. Paderborn: Schöningh.Search in Google Scholar
Campbell, Joe & Frances Karttunen. 1989. Foundation course in Nahuatl grammar. 2 vols. Missoula: The University of Montana.Search in Google Scholar
De La Grasserie, Raoul. 1903. Le nahuatl. Langue des aztèques, conquérants du Mexique précolombien. Paris: Guilmoto.Search in Google Scholar
Dixon, R. M. W. 2010. Basic linguistic theory. Vol. 1: Methodology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Eisinger, Marc. 1998. Index lexical du Codex de Florence. Tome I–IV. Thèse présentée pour le Doctorat en Linguistique de l’Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot.Search in Google Scholar
Fischer, Kerstin & Anatol Stefanowitsch. 2006. Konstruktionsgrammatik: Ein Überblick. In Kerstin Fischer & Anatol Stefanowitsch (eds.), Konstruktionsgrammatik. Von der Anwendung zur Theorie, 3–18. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.Search in Google Scholar
Flores Farfán, José Antonio & Brigida von Mentz. 2004. Review of: Thomas Stolz, Die Numeralklassifikation im klassischen Aztekischen. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 57(1). 98–99.Search in Google Scholar
Garibay Kintana, Angel María. 1989. Llave del náhuatl. México D.F.: Editorial Porrúa.Search in Google Scholar
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. 1994. Mexicanische Grammatik. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh.10.30965/9783657739875Search in Google Scholar
Karttunen, Frances. 1983. An analytical dictionary of Nahuatl. Norman & London: University of Oklahoma.Search in Google Scholar
Karttunen, Frances & James Lockhart. 1976. Nahuatl in the Middle Years. Language contact phenomena in texts of the colonial period. Berkeley & Los Angeles & London: University of California Press.Search in Google Scholar
Launey, Michel. 1981. Introduction à la langue et à la littérature aztèques. Tome 1: Grammaire. Paris: L’Harmattan.Search in Google Scholar
Launey, Michel. 1986. Catégories et opérations dans la grammaire nahuatl. Thèse présentée à l’université de Paris IV pour l’obtention du Doctorat d’État (spécialité: Linguistique) sous la direction de M. le professeur B. Pottier. Unpublished.Search in Google Scholar
Launey, Michel. 1992. Introducción a la lengua y a la literatura náhuatl. México DF: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Search in Google Scholar
Launey, Michel. 2011. An introduction to Classical Nahuatl. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511778001Search in Google Scholar
Lockhart, James. 2001. Nahuatl as written. Lessons in older written Nahuatl. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.10.1515/9780804766043Search in Google Scholar
Molina, Alonso de. 1970. Vocabulario en lengua castellana y mexicana y mexicana y castellana. México: Porrúa.Search in Google Scholar
Morales Lara, Saúl. 2003. Las frases numerales mesoamericanas. Morfología y sintaxis. México D.F.: Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia.Search in Google Scholar
Pe, Hla. 1965. A re-examination of Burmese classifiers. Lingua 15. 163–186.10.1016/0024-3841(65)90012-4Search in Google Scholar
Schœmbs, Jakob. 1949. Aztekische Schriftsprache. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag.Search in Google Scholar
Siméon, Rémi. 1885. Dictionnaire de la langue nahuatl ou mexicaine. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.Search in Google Scholar
Siméon, Rémi. 1963. Dictionnaire de la langue nahuatl ou mexicaine. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt.Search in Google Scholar
Stolz, Thomas. 2001. Die Numeralklassifikation im klassischen Aztekischen. München & Newcastle: LINCOM Europa.Search in Google Scholar
Suárez, Jorge A. 1983. The Mesoamerican Indian languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511554445Search in Google Scholar
Sullivan, Thelma D. 1988. Compendium of Nahuatl grammar. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press.Search in Google Scholar
Appendix
1 Token frequency of classifiers with selected numerals in the Codex Florentinus
| Value | Numeral | Classifier | Sum | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tetl | tlamantli | camatl | tēntli | pāntli | ōlōtl | |||
| 1 | cen- | 124 | 108 | 48 | 41 | 8 | 7 | 336 |
| 2 | ōm- | 45 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 78 |
| 3 | ē- | 18 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 29 | ||
| 4 | nāuh- | 29 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 38 | ||
| 5 | mācuīl- | 17 | 4 | 21 | ||||
| 6 | chicuacen- | 3 | 4 | 1 | 8 | |||
| 7 | chicōm- | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 | |||
| 8 | chicuē- | 7 | 7 | |||||
| 9 | chiucnāuh- | 6 | 6 | |||||
| 10 | màtlāc- | 29 | 29 | |||||
| 15 | caxtōl- | 14 | 1 | 15 | ||||
| 20 | cempōhual- | 4 | 4 | |||||
| Total | 298 | 151 | 56 | 42 | 17 | 13 | 577 |
2 Frequency of twenties and their multiples (up to two hundred) in the Codex Florentinus
| Value | Numeral | twenty | Sum | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -pōhualli | -quimilli | -ipilli | -tecpāntli | |||
| 20 | cen- | 119 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 128 |
| 40 | ōm- | 11 | 2 | 6 | 19 | |
| 60 | ē- | 3 | 3 | |||
| 80 | nāuh- | 4 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 100 | mācuīl- | 5 | 5 | |||
| 160 | chicuē- | 1 | 1 | |||
| 200 | màtlāc- | 17 | 1 | 18 | ||
| Total | 160 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 179 | |
3 Token frequency of mensuratives in the Codex Florentinus
| Mensurative | Meaning | Domain | cen- | Sum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ācalli | ‘ship’ | cargo | 2 | 3 |
| caxitl | ‘cup’ | food, drink | 0 | 3 |
| īxtli | ‘eye’ | liquids (drops) | 0 | 4 |
| iztitl | ‘fingernail’ | width | 12 | 15 |
| mā(i)tl | ‘hand’ | size | 4 | 22 |
| māpichtli | ‘fist’ | size, amount | 1 | 1 |
| màpilli | ‘finger’ | liquids | 5 | 6 |
| mītl | ‘arrow’ | length | 1 | 1 |
| molicpitl | ‘elbow’ | length | 4 | 4 |
| tlacotl | ‘loaf’ | length | 8 | 15 |
| tlamāmālli | ‘cargo’ | goods | 2 | 2 |
| Subtotals | 39 | 76 | ||
| Total | 125 |
4 Frequency of calendric auto-classifiers in the Codex Florentinus
| Value | Numeral | Time measure | Sum | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ilhuitl | xihuitl | yohualli | |||
| 1 | cen- | 133 | 4 | 137 | |
| 2 | ōm- | 25 | 3 | 28 | |
| 3 | ē- | 25 | 12 | 37 | |
| 4 | nāuh- | 63 | 28 | 8 | 99 |
| 5 | mācuīl- | 21 | 3 | 1 | 25 |
| 6 | chicuacē- | 3 | 3 | ||
| 7 | chicōm- | 6 | 1 | 7 | |
| 8 | chicuē- | 4 | 6 | 10 | |
| 9 | chiucnāuh- | 1 | 1 | ||
| 10 | màtlāc- | 6 | 20 | 26 | |
| 15 | caxtōl- | 10 | 10 | ||
| 20 | cempōhual- | 21 | 13 | 34 | |
| Total | 304 | 100 | 13 | 417 | |
© 2018 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
