Zero and nothing in Jarrawara

Abstract

The analytic device called "zero" in modem linguistics has its origin in Panini's analysis of Sanskrit. He uses the term lopa to describe a blank in a grammatical pattern. "This blank or lopa is in several places treated as having a real existence and rules are made applicable to it, in the same way as any ordinary substitute that has an apparent form" (Vasu 1891, 1: 56). Bloomfield (1933: 209) applies this idea to English and suggests that, in sheep, "the plural-suffix is replaced by zero - that is, by nothing at all."