Premium
Major and Minor Chronotopes in a Specialized Counting System
Author(s) -
Anderson Donald N.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2011.01085.x
Subject(s) - indexicality , chronotope , numeral system , meaning (existential) , linguistics , sociology , epistemology , history , philosophy , computer science , artificial intelligence
The Northern English Sheep Counting Score, a stray numeral system, has been vexing folklorists and linguists for over a hundred years. I suggest that the form of the score reflects a process of specialization distinct from the abstract mathematical functions which characterize common numeral systems. This specialization is explored through the use of Bakhtin's concepts of minor and major chronotopes. Chronotopes, understood as the creation of spatiotemporal ground on which indexicality has meaning, are used to describe the ways that contiguity and sequence form dialogically interacting indexical relationships at various levels of analysis, from minimal adjacent pairs and rhythm, to performance, to the large‐scale chronotopes organizing scholarly and popular discourses. [Sheep Count, chronotope, indexicality, numeral systems, ethnomathematics]