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The Metaphorical Use of Body Parts in Forming Counting expressions: Evidence from Tāti Language Group

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2022

Jahandust Sabzalipur Open the ORCID record for Jahandust Sabzalipur [Opens in a new window]  and
Raheleh Izadifar Open the ORCID record for Raheleh Izadifar [Opens in a new window]
Jahandust Sabzalipur*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Humanities, Rasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Rasht, Iran
Raheleh Izadifar
Affiliation:
Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
*
*Corresponding author sabzalipor@gmail.com
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Abstract

Mathematics is a particularly important challenge for embodied approaches to cognition, as it is probably the most abstract domain of human knowledge. Humans use metaphors in all aspects of life. This paper studies the effects of human body parts on numerals, numeral systems, and mensural and sortal classifiers. The evidence for this paper comes from the Tāti language group, an endangered Iranian language of the Indo-European language family. The Tāti data shows these languages make use of base-10, base-20, and base-50 numeral systems, some of which are among the most common and earliest counting systems worldwide, while the last is unique and peculiar to the area. Body parts may also play an important role in forming mensural and sortal classifiers, as is the case in the Tāti language group.

Keywords

CountingMensural classifiersNumeralsNumeral SystemsSortal classifiersTāti
Type
Article
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , October 2022 , pp. 1025 - 1043
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Iranian Studies

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