Genders and Classifiers
Author | : Aleksandra I︠U︡rʹevna Aĭkhenvalʹd |
Publisher | : |
Total Pages | : 310 |
Release | : 2019 |
ISBN-10 | : 0191878065 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780191878060 |
Rating | : 4/5 (65 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: This title offers a comprehensive account of the typology of noun classification across the world's languages. Every language has some means of categorizing objects into humans, or animates, or by their shape, form, size, and function. The most widespread are linguistic genders - grammatical classes of nouns based on core semantic properties such as sex (female and male), animacy, humanness, and also shape and size. Classifiers of several types also serve to categorize entities. Numeral classifiers occur with number words, possessive classifiers appear in the expressions of possession, and verbal classifiers are used on a verb, categorizing its argument. These varied sorts of genders and classifiers can also occur together.