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Part of
The Diachrony of Classification Systems
Edited by William B. McGregor and Søren Wichmann
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 342] 2018
► pp. 241–282

Nominal and verbal classification

A comparative perspective

The present paper starts from the observation that classification is cross-linguistically very widespread in the domain of the noun and rather rare in the domain of the verb. It argues that this asymmetry is not arbitrary. It is motivated by two conditions: (i) the markers used for classification should not interfere with other grammaticalization processes, and (ii) the use of a classification marker in later processes of grammaticalization should not impair the initial classification system. Since these conditions are violated more easily with verbs than with nouns, classification is more persistent in nominal classificaton than in verbal classification. The paper looks at compounding, which is the common denominator of many nominal and verbal classification systems and thus provides the starting point from which the differences between the two types of classification can be observed. It then looks at the semantics involved in nominal and verbal classification, and it shows that the two conditions are more easily violated in the domain of the verb than in the domain of the noun.

Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: Basic idea of the paper
  • 2.Classification and compounding
    • 2.1Nominal compounds and nominal classification
      • 2.1.1General remarks
      • 2.1.2Nominal compounds and numeral classifiers: mainland Southeast Asia
      • 2.1.3Nominal compounds and noun classifiers
      • 2.1.4Noun-class markers in Miraña
    • 2.2Verbal compounds and verbal classification
  • 3.The functional range of verbal and nominal classification
    • 3.1The functional range of compound-related nominal classification
      • 3.1.1General remarks
      • 3.1.2The functional range of numeral classifiers in mainland Southeast Asian languages
      • 3.1.3The functional range of noun classifiers: Mayan languages of Meso-America
      • 3.1.4The noun-class markers of Miraña
    • 3.2The functional range of compound-related verbal classification
    • 3.3Light verbs and serial verb constructions in the light of verbal classification
  • 4.Why is classification recurrent in the nominal domain and relatively rare in the verbal domain?
    • 4.1General remarks
    • 4.2The role of classification in grammatical categories of the noun
    • 4.3The role of classification in grammatical categories of the verb
  • 5.Conclusion: Some general considerations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.342.09bis
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