Article published In:
ClassifiersEdited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
[Asian Languages and Linguistics 3:2] 2022
► pp. 141–152
Edited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
[Asian Languages and Linguistics 3:2] 2022
► pp. 141–152
Classifiers: Setting the scene
An introduction to the special issue on classifiers in the languages of Asia
Classifiers are morphemes which occur under specifiable conditions and which categorise nominal referents in terms of their animacy, shape, and other properties. The most widely represented type is numeral classifiers, which occur next to a number word or a quantifier. Further types include noun classifiers, verbal classifiers, classifiers in possessive constructions, and deictic classifiers. One language can have more than one type of classifier. In some, the same set of classifiers occurs in several classifier contexts, corroborating the unity of the phenomenon. Classifiers categorise nouns, and have to be distinguished from verbal action markers used to categorise and count actions. Classifiers have a variety of functions, and are never semantically redundant. Classifiers mirror social attitudes and hierarchies, physical environment and means of subsistence, and are susceptible to change in language contact situations. Contributions to this issue adress the systems and the functions of numeral classifiers and also classifiers in multiple contexts across Asia and beyond, including Austronesian languages of Taiwan, a selection of Tibeto-Burman (or Trans-Himalayan) languages, Zhuang, a Tai-Kadai language, and Kazakh, a Turkic language.
Keywords: classifiers, numeral classifiers, sortal classifiers, mensural classifiers, definiteness, individuation, language contact
Article outline
- 1.Classifiers: An overview
- 2.The utility of classifiers
- 3.About this special issue
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
References
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
2000 Classifiers: a typology of noun
categorization devices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2015 Oxford Bibliography Online:
Classifiers (refereed updateable resource with summaries and evaluation for each
entry). General Editor: Mark Aronoff. New York: Oxford University Press (online).
2016 How gender shapes the
world. Oxford: Oxford Universty Press. 
2019 ‘Noun categorization devices: a
cross-linguistic perspective’, in A. Y. Aikhenvald and Elena Mihas (eds.), Genders
and classifiers: a cross-linguistic
study. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–29.
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y.
Forthcoming A guide to gender and classifiers. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y., R. M. W. Dixon, and Nerida Jarkey
2021 Integration.
Bai, Junwei
2019 ‘Numeral
classifiers in Munya, a Tibeto-Burman
language’, pp. 282–98 of Genders
and classifiers: a cross-linguistic study, edited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and Elena Mihas. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2020 ‘A
grammar of Munya’. PhD thesis, James Cook University.
Becker, Anton J.
1975 ‘A linguistic image of nature:
the Burmese numerative classifier
system’. Linguistics 1651: 109–121.
Beckwith, Christopher I.
1998 ‘Noun Specification and
Classification in Uzbek’, Anthropological
Linguistics 401: 124–140.
Bisang, Walter
2017 ‘Classification
between Grammar and Culture. A Cross-Linguistic
Perspective’, pp. 199–230 of Classification
from Antiquity to Modern Times, edited by Tanja Pommerrening and Walter Bisang. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Braun, Friederike
2000 Geschlecht
im Türkischen. Untersuchungen zum sprachlichen Umgang mit einer sozialen
Kategorie. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Chao, Yuen-Ren
1968 A
grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Day, C.
1973 The
Jacaltec language. Indiana University Publications. Language
Science monographs 12.
Downing, Pamela
Enfield, N. J.
2021 The
langages of Mainland Southeast
Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gerner, Matthias
Givón, T.
1981 ‘On
the development of numeral ‘one’ as an indefinite marker’, Folia Linguistica
Historica 21: 35–53.
Haas, Mary R.
1942 ‘The use of numeral classifier
in
Thai,’ Language 181: 201–205.
Heine, Bernd and Kuteva, Tania
2002 The
world lexicon of
grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jarkey, Nerida and Hiroko Komatsu
2019 Numeral
classifiers in Japanese. In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and Elena Mihas (eds.), Genders
And Classifiers: A Cross-Linguistic
Typology, 249–81. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kilarski, Marcin
2013 Nominal
Classification A history of its study from the classical period to the
present. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Lee, Yunseok
2014 Classifiers
In Korean. Munich: Lincom Europa.
Lu, Tian-Qiao
2012 Classifiers
in Kam-Tai languages. A cognitive and cultural perspective. Boca Raton: Universal Publishers.
Mahapatra, B. P.
1979 Malto.
An Ethnosemantic Study. Manasagangotro, Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages.
Marnita, Rina
2016 Classifiers
in Minangkabau: a typological study. Munich: Lincom Europa.
Poser, William J.
2005 ‘Noun classification in
Carrier,’ Anthropological
Linguistics 471: 143–68.
Rice, Keren and Willem de Reuse
2017 ‘The
Athabaskan (Dene) language
family’, pp. 707–747 of The
Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Typology, edited by Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald and R. M. W. Dixon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sneddon, James N.
1996 Indonesian reference
grammar. Sydney: Allen and Unwin.
Zavala, Roberto
2000 ‘Multiple
classifier systems in Akatek
Mayan’, pp. 114–46, Systems
of nominal
classification, edited by G. Senft. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, Sihong
2016 A
grammar of Ersu. Munich: Lincom Europa.
Zubin, D. and M. Shimojo
1993 ‘How
“general” are general classifiers? with special reference to ko and tsu in
Japanese’, in J. S. Guenter, B. A. Kaiser and C. C. Zoll (eds.) Proceedings
of the Berkeley Linguistics Society: Proceedings of the Annual
Meeting 191: 490–502. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.