Number and Numeral Classifiers

Abstract

This chapter describes various ways in which numeral classifiers interact with semantic number and number marking across languages. According to the Sanches–Greenberg–Slobin generalizations, languages in which the use of numeral classifiers is obligatory do not have obligatory number marking on nouns, and in the presence of numeral classifiers, nouns are normally not marked for number. An empirical and theoretical discussion of these generalizations is followed by a description of data from the Austronesian language Mokilese, an obligatory numeral classifier language with obligatory number marking on definite and indefinite markers. Finally, the chapter turns to number marking on classifiers (i.e. the form of the numeral classifier used with the numeral for ‘one’ differs from the form used with other numerals), as well as number marking by means of classifiers (i.e. cases where numeral classifiers play a role in the semantic number-marking strategies that a language has).