Answer to Question #210890 in English for Rina

Question

1.Are Iaai numerals like English numerals? Why? Justify your answer(2mark)

2. Are the Iaai numerals a decimal or quinary system? Justify your answer(2mark)

3. Do all languages have the basic same word order? Give one example to justify your answer.(2mark)

4. Is there any difference in the way alienable and inalienables are possed?(2mark)

5.And if so, describe how this difference is visible in the grammar of Iaai.(3mark)

Answer 1

a)No, they are not the same. This is because Laai numerals has a numeral system with five as the base. A possible origination of a quinary system is that there are five digits on either hand.

b)It is the original decimal Polynesian people influenced by the nearby Iaai people who used a quinary numeral system, and changed from a decimal system to a quinary one. There are two sets of numerals from 11 to 20, the second way was the archaic form.

c)Every language falls under one of the six word order types; the unfixed type is somewhat disputed in the community, as the languages where it occurs have one of the dominant word orders but every word order type is grammatically correct.

d)There is a marked difference in frequency of occurrence in possessive constructions: Inalienable nouns (=bodypart/kinship terms) very often occur as possessed nouns, whereas alienable nouns occur as possessed nouns much more rarely (cf. Nichols 1988:579: "those nouns which are most often possessed").

e)There is a marked difference in frequency of occurrence in possessive constructions: Inalienable nouns (=bodypart/kinship terms) very often occur as possessed nouns, whereas alienable nouns occur as possessed nouns much more rarely (cf. Nichols 1988:579: "those nouns which are most often possessed").