Teens and Twenties

[David Gil]

Two comments on Waruno's latest posting:

Waruno Mahdi wrote:

>>  (a) a vigesimal counting system, and
>>  (b) a perspective in which counting proceeds forwards (16, 17, 18 ...)
>>  towards a fixed salient target of 20
>
>
> David, that sounds logical alright, the problem is only, I forgot to
> add in my previous mail, the Javanese term for 20 itself, _ro-ng-puluh_,
> follows the decimal system, cf. _se-puluh_ '10'.

In which case, the only way to salvage my speculation would be to posit 
either an earlier but subsequently lost vigesimal system, or else to 
assume that the vigesimal system is still available at some level of 
conceptual representation, even if the actual form means 2 x 10.

> There seems however to be another scale of systems of numeration,
> '1, 2, many', then '1,2,3,4,5,6,many', etc. My pet theory is that
> these are the steps followed by zoological evolution, there apparently
> being animals that only distinguish the first-mentioned quantities,
> and some that are more advanced and "count" till seven. And these
> evolutionary phases of development seem (so my pet theory, at least)
> to still be reflected in the structure of some part of the human brain
> that is responsible for counting. Hence, in human tradition too, three
> and seven constantly reoccur, be it the 3 wizards or the 3 little 
> piggies,
> the seven dwarfs or 7-mile boots (if you ask someone to name an arbitrary
> number less than 10, he/she will almost always say "7").

This is consistent with a burgeoning literature on what psychologists 
are calling subitization.  The basic idea is that when humans are shown 
N objects and asked how many there are, up to say 6-7 we answer 
immediately, and generally get it right, whereas beyond around 7 we have 
to count.  The first mechanism, which works up to 6 or 7, is what is 
called subitization.  And apparently animals can do it as well, whereas 
they can't count.

-- 
David Gil

Department of Linguistics
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany

Telephone: 49-341-3550321 
Fax: 49-341-3550119
Email: gil at eva.mpg.de
Webpage:  http://www.eva.mpg.de/~gil/



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