Article published in:
Classifiers
Edited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
[Asian Languages and Linguistics 3:2] 2022
► pp. 239–267

Classifiers in a language with articles

Recent evolution of a typologically unusual Asian classifier system in the Tani languages of northeast India

| University of Sydney

Classifiers in Tani languages are similar in scale and semantic contents to the systems of better-known classifier languages such as Thai and Mandarin. Yet they are unusual in co-existing with an ancient and well-grammaticalised referential management system including both definite and indefinite articles, in lacking a generic classifier, in tending not to use a classifier with human referents, and in occurring exclusively to the right of head nouns, in the order [N CLF NUM]. They are also relatively more lexeme-like, occurring less frequently and with more semantic control than do the classifiers of many other East/Southeast Asian languages. This article will present a basic description of Tani classifier systems, and argue for their relatively recent development through the mechanism of a repeater construction functioning within a pre-existing [A-B B-C] template for taxonomic compound formation. Although this development is similar to pathways attested for other Asian languages, Tani classifiers do not share the same set of functional and distributional outcomes.

Keywords: classifiers, numeral classifiers, Tani languages, Tibeto-Burman languages, Sino-Tibetan languages, Trans-Himalayan languages, historical linguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Comparative-historical, areal and grammatical overviews
    • 2.1Comparative-historical and areal overview
    • 2.2Grammatical overview
      • 2.2.1Morphology
      • 2.2.2Word classes and grammatical relations
      • 2.2.3Referential marking
  • 3.Numeral classifiers
    • 3.1Structures and functions
    • 3.2Functions absent from Tani classifier systems
    • 3.3Variation in basic structures and functions across languages
    • 3.4Classifier inventories, repeater constructions, loanwords and degree of grammaticalization
    • 3.5Humans, more on loanwords, generics and unclassifiables
  • 4.Origins and development
    • 4.1The [generic-specific] word formation template in Tani languages
    • 4.2Taxonomically-organized word families
    • 4.3Noun classifier-like initial formatives
    • 4.4Gender-like final formatives
    • 4.5Development of numeral classifiers
  • 5.Summary and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 January 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/alal.22012.pos
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