Nouns and Noun Phrases - University of Macau Library

Numerals and quantifiers 871
complex forms may plausibly be analyzed as phrases, which is also reflected in the
orthographical rules, which require some of these complex numerals to be written as
one word, but others as separate words; some examples are given in (2b). Finally,
complex numerals can be formed by means of COORDINATION with en ‘and/plus’, as
in (2c). Although this process results in formations that are phrase-like, the
orthographic rules require a complex form to be written as a single word when it
refers to a number below 100, which may be related to the fact that the element en
must be obligatorily realized in such cases. The complex numerals above 100, on
the other hand, must be written as separate words, which may be related to the fact
that the conjunction en is optional in these cases.
(2) a. Derivation: vijf-tig (50), zes-tig (60)
b. Compounding: vijf-tien (15), vijf-honderd (500), zes miljoen (6,000,000)
c. Coordination: vijfenvijftig (55), honderd (en) vijf (105)
Example (3) provides the cardinal numerals from 0 to 19. The numerals
corresponding to 0 to 12 (given in small caps) are all base forms. The remaining
numerals are compound-like with the numeral tien acting as the second member of
the compound. The first member is one of the numerals corresponding to 5 to 9, or
one of the irregular bound morphemes der- and veer-, which also feature in dertig
‘thirty’ and veertig ‘forty’ (these irregular forms are given in italics).
(3) The numerals 0 to 19
0 NUL 10 TIEN
1 ÉÉN 11 ELF
2 TWEE 12 TWAALF
3 DRIE 13 der-tien
4 VIER 14 veer-tien
5 VIJF 15 vijf-tien
6 ZES 16 zes-tien
7 ZEVEN 17 zeven-tien
8 ACHT 18 acht-tien
9 NEGEN 19 negen-tien
Example (4) shows that the numerals corresponding to the multiples of 10 from 20
to 90 all feature the bound morpheme -tig. Most of these forms are regular
derivations from the simple numerals in Example (3), but there are also less regular
formations. The first is twintig ‘twenty’, in which the morpheme –tig is attached to
the form twin-, which does not appear elsewhere in the numeral system. Other more
or less irregular forms are dertig ‘thirty’ and veertig ‘forty’, which are derived from
the bound morphemes der- and veer-, which also appear in dertien ‘thirteen’ and
veertien ‘fourteen’. Finally, there is tachtig ‘eighty’ where the first morpheme
features a /t/ in the onset which is not found in the base form acht ‘eight’. The
remaining numbers between 20 and 100 are phrase-like, and are built up by means
of coordination of one of the numerals from 1 to 9 and one of the forms in the first
column in example (4) by means of the conjunction-like element en. As was
mentioned above, these combinations are written as single words; the ortho-