LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 18:9 September 2018
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
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Numerals in Rajbanshi/Kamtapuri

Dr. Hari Madhab Ray

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the numerals and counting system of the Rajbanshi/Kamtapuri language. It will try to explore use of numerals in general and its day to day use. The numerals are found in children’s game, in idioms, in riddles and personal names. The aim here is to see whether there is any adstratal or superstratal influence on the Rajbanshi/Kamtapuri numerals in a language contact situation. The data are collected from Coochbehar and Alipurduyar districts of West Bengal.

1. Introduction and Background

The paper shows general usage of numerals (numbers) in the Rajbanshi/Kamtapuri language. The word ‘number’ does not refer to the grammatical number i.e. singular, dual, paucal, plural (R. M. W. Dixon 2010: 158) but rather numerals and quantifying numbers only. It is believed that numeral plays a significant role in the daily activities of a community. The speakers of a community use numerals in counting system. Numeral refers to the numbers which are used for counting and also in measure system in natural language. David Miller (1979) in “What is in a numeral?’ opines that the naïve answer is that a numeral is a number-designator whose ‘value can be determined without reference to the empirical facts’. Pearla Nesher and Tamar Katriel (1986) talk about number from linguistic perspective and they carry out an experiment which shows how the children learn these abstractions. According to Nesher and Katriel (1986) in the natural language system, numbers function as predicates, modifying the nouns in their scope quantitatively. They function within a sentence like adjectives in some respects. On the other hand, in the formal language of mathematics, numbers do not function as predicates for a quantitative description of objects in the world; rather, the number itself is the object of discussion, and its characteristics are described by using other predicates.

This is only the beginning part of the ARTICLE. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Hari Madhab Ray
Assistant Professor
#115, Centre for Linguistics
School of Languages Literature & Culture Studies
Jawaharlal Nehru University
New Delhi 110067
India
harimadhabray@gmail.com, harijnu@gmail.com

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