Counting and countability in classifier languages: evidence from Donglan Zhuang

IF 0.5 3区 文学 0 LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
Xuping Li, Huan’gan Wei, Hongyong Liu
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Abstract

This article addresses the issue of how nominal countability is grammatically encoded and how the counting function is realized in classifier languages by investigating classifier phrases in Donglan Zhuang, a Tai-Kadai language. According to the prevailing individuation account, classifiers are required to individuate nouns, which can then be counted by numerals. Under this approach, countability and counting are conflated. Donglan Zhuang has two syntactically distinct types of classifiers, namely, numeral classifiers CLnum and noun classifiers CLnom. CLnum performs the counting/measuring function, comparable to the cardinality function proposed in Scontras (The semantics of measurement, Harvard University, Cambridge, 2014), and CLnom encodes syntactic countability by singling out sortal nouns from the mass domain, whereby sortal nouns are, meanwhile, turned into (taxonomic) kind terms. Noun classifiers in Donglan Zhuang pose a challenge to Chierchia’s (Nat Lang Semant 6(4):339–405, 1998) “bare argument hypothesis” and suggest that bare nouns in classifier languages are not uniform with respect to the [±argument] parametric setting.

Abstract Image

分类器语言中的计数和可计数性:来自东兰壮族的证据
本文通过研究东兰壮语(一种傣族加岱语)中的分类词组,探讨了在分类语言中,名词的可计数性是如何进行语法编码的,以及计数功能是如何实现的。根据流行的个体化说法,分类词组需要对名词进行个体化,然后用数字进行计数。根据这种方法,可数性和计数被混为一谈。东兰壮语有两种句法上不同的分类词类,即数字分类词类 CLnum 和名词分类词类 CLnom。CLnum执行计数/度量功能,类似于Scontras(《度量语义学》,哈佛大学,剑桥,2014年)中提出的万有引力(cardinality)功能,而CLnom则通过将分类名词从质量域中挑选出来来编码句法上的可计数性,与此同时,分类名词被转化为(分类学)种类术语。东兰壮语中的名词分类器对 Chierchia(Nat Lang Semant 6(4):339-405, 1998)的 "裸论据假说 "提出了挑战,并表明分类器语言中的裸名词在[±论据]参数设置方面并不统一。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.90
自引率
0.00%
发文量
13
期刊介绍: The study of East Asian languages, especially of Chinese, Japanese and Korean, has existed for a long time as a field, as demonstrated by the existence of programs in most institutions of higher learning and research that include these languages as a major component. Speakers of these three languages have shared a great deal of linguistic heritage during the development of their languages through cultural contacts, in addition to possible genealogical linkage. These languages accordingly possess various common features. Another important factor that ties them together as a field is that they have shared a common tradition of linguistic scholarship, a tradition that distinguishes itself from the study of western languages. Against this tradition, much recent work has approached these languages from a broader perspective beyond the area, considering them within contexts of general theoretical research, bringing new lights to old problems in the area and contributing to current issues in linguistic theory. But there continues to be good reason for scholars working in this approach to hold a special interest in each other''s work. Especially with the amount of most recent theoretical work on these languages, the field of theoretical East Asian linguistics has been fast growing. The purpose of the Journal of East Asian Linguistics is to provide a common forum for such scholarly activities, and to foster further growth that will allow the field to benefit more from linguistic theory of today, and enable the languages to play a more important role in shaping linguistic theory of tomorrow.
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