Nick Summers wrote:
Does anybody know of a precedent for zero-based counting in natural languages? It appears in AllNoun, and in some other conlangs, if I recall correctly, and I was just wondering if anyone actually thought about quantity that way in the real world.I recall reading an article in a philosophy magazine by a very western-empiricist thinker - someone in the Marvin Minsky tradition. He wrote that <there are no apples> is simply another way of saying <zero apples are present> - he considered zero and the minus numbers qualitatively no different from positive integers. I disagree.
Firstly, all(?) cultures develop a digit for zero much later than digits for other integers. To me this suggests a qualitative difference.
Secondly: Is it possible to count up to zero? You can count three apples on the table, and I think you can count one apple on the table, but can you count none?
To experience an absence (e.g., an unexpectedly empty chair) feels very different to the experience of a presence (e.g., an unexpectedly occupied chair).
In short, I suggest that talk about <zero apples> is the result of bewitchment caused by the presence of a digit representing absence of number.
Another way: Zero is not a quantity. It is an absence of quantity, which may perhaps be a quality.
Copyright © 1997, Maurizio M. Gavioli,
Last updated: 14 Oct. 1997