Overt coordination in additive numerals of minority languages in South China

Abstract

This paper explores a typology of overt coordination in additive numerals in a number of minority languages in South China. Among about 100 minority languages surveyed, 26 feature different coordinators for additive numerals and for noun phrases, and we demonstrate that these two types of coordinators are neither semantically, etymologically, or morphologically related. This phenomenon presents a serious challenge to the proposal that additive numerals do not form constituents and that numeral coordination is derived from underlying nominal coordination in such languages.