The syntax of Agreement in Tiv Counting System
Keywords:
Tiv, syntax, numeral system, packing strategyAbstract
This work is on the numeral system of Tiv; with the objective of examining the syntactic operations that characterize its derivations. Numerals in Tiv are divided into two classes: The cardinal and derived numerals. The work looks at the morphology of Tiv counting system from this perspective. In their derivation, Tiv utilises the compounding and duplication strategy. The work also discusses the vigesimal system of Tiv numerals. From the syntactic point the work relies on the account of Hurford’s (1975) packing strategy. This is a universal phrase structure analysis used in this work with the aim of examining the internal structure of the numerals and show how morpheme features syntactically react by operating as heads or phrasal categories in the derivation. The work indicate Tiv as a language that semantically utilises both the additive and multiplicative strategy and has borrowed from languages like Hausa and English for economy of derivation. The analysis reveals that in Tiv, the higher bases are ordered to the left, contrary to Hurfords claim of their right ordering and its universality.
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