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DEVELOPMENT OF THE NUMBER CONCEPT THROUGH NUMBER WORDS IN LANGUAGE

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DEVELOPMENT OF THE NUMBER CONCEPT THROUGH NUMBER WORDS IN LANGUAGE

Author: Gontran Ervynck

Publication Year: 1993

Abstract

Our purpose is to exploit linguistic evidence derived from the use of number words in languages in order to
formulate conjectures of how the number concept emerged in human thinking. Comparison of structures in
naming numbers gives us a hint about what thoughts are at the background in the evolution toward the
mathematical concepts. Two distinct procedures seem to activate the process; the first consists in developing
an awareness of quantity and leads into the cardinal number concept, the second relies on order and
introduces the ordinal numbers. Four successive phases may be distinguished in the development of a
number system. Phase I is related to the recognition of a number of objects, involving awareness of the
concept without exteriorisation, without using names for it. Phase 2 comprises the introduction of number
words with classifiers: the number concept is closely associated with objects of a certain kind. In phase 3
the development of a number system occurs through association with a standard: theÂ· human body.
Eventually, in phase IV abstraction yields the creation of an abstract number concept. A word for a
concrete object which is part of the vernacular is totally freed from any concrete connotation and becomes
an abstract measure.

Type: Research Paper

GONTRAN ERVYNCK
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