Dr. CHAN Kin Wing2026-06-262026-06-262025Chan, K. W. (12 Jun 2025). On the syncretism of TWO, comitative, and NP-conjunction in Southeast Asian languages: Implication on typology. 34th Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEAL-34), Platinum Hotel, Jimbaran Beach, Bali.http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/27789The development of coordinating conjunctions from comitative adpositions through grammaticalization　is well-documented (Traugott 1986, among others). Heine and Kuteva (2012) note that some languages　use the same form for the numeral 'two' (or a dual marker) and a coordinating conjunction. However,　many scholars dismiss the polysemy of [TWO = conjunction] as "incidental instances" (Stassen 2000:16), leading to its oversight. <br> Our extensive database, comprising first-hand data from 278 languages (645 grams) and second-hand data from 829 languages (888 grams), reveals that this polysemy is more prevalent than previously thought. This paper identifies three syncretism types among numerals, comitative, and NP-conjunction in Southeast Asian languages, distributed across various language families. <br> The first type is exemplified by ruas in Tetun-Fehan, spoken in West Timor (Bril 2011), where comitative markers and NP-conjunctions share the form with the numeral 'two'. In Hahka-Chin, a Kuki- Chin language from central Chin State, Myanmar, net serves as a numeral 'two', comitative postposition, and NP-conjunction:<br> (1) Janaw coffee net, no lo-chin de.<br> 1M coffee COM/CONJ milk want P<br> ‘I want coffee with milk.’ / ‘I want coffee and milk.’<br> The second type involves comitative markers and NP-conjunctions sharing the form with third person dual suffixes, as seen in sná in Kammu (Laos) (Svantesson & Holmer 2015) and kisi in Waropen (Indonesia) (Stassen 2000). The third type is demonstrated by préi in Sedang (Vietnam) (Stassen 2008), where comitative markers and NP-conjunctions share the form with third person dual pronouns.<br> This paper explores the mechanisms and conditions for the grammaticalization [TWO > comitative > NP-conjunction]. Furthermore, we propose a revision of the AND/WITH dichotomy (Stassen 2000) to include a classification of the world's languages into AND-languages, WITH-languages, and TWO- languages.<br>enComitativesＣoordinating ＣonjunctionsＧrammaticalizationTWOＴypologyConference Paper