Description
Book SynopsisThis volume, first published in 2000, addresses the fundamental linguistic question of how the perceived world is expressed through systems of nominal classification. Leading scholars review the whole spectrum of nominal classification, from gender systems through to numeral classifiers, providing theoretical interpretations and empirical case studies across a variety of languages.
Table of ContentsPreface Gunter Senft; 1. What do we really know about nominal classification systems? Gunter Senft; 2. A morphosyntactic typology of classifiers Colette Grinevald; 3. Unusual classifiers in Tariana Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald; 4. Multiple classifier systems in Akatek (Mayan) Roberto Zavala Maldonado; 5. Ant, ancestors and medicine: a semantic and pragmatic account of classifier constructions in Arrernte (Central Australia) David P. Wilkins; 6. Visualizing ability and nominal classifications: an evidence of cultural operation in the agreement rules of Japanese numeral classifiers Kyoko Inoue; 7. Isolation of units and unification of isolates: the gestalt-functions of classifiers Jürgen Broschart; 8. Bantu noun class system. Loanword and acquisition evidence of semantic productivity Katherine Demuth; 9. Gender assignment: a typology and a model Greville G. Corbett and Norman M. Fraser; 10. Systems of nominal classification - a concluding discussion John Lucy.
