Systems of Nominal Classification

by Edited by Gunter Senft

• ISBN13: 9780521770750
• ISBN10: 0521770750
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-08-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This new book addresses the fundamental linguistic question of how the perceived world is expressed through systems of nominal classification that are grammatically encoded in various languages. A team of leading international scholars reviews the whole spectrum of nominal classification, from gender systems through to numeral classifiers, providing cutting-edge theoretical interpretations and empirical case studies based on a wide range of languages. The volume presents new ideas about the problems of classification, advances theory by proposing new typological categories and clarifies the interface between anthropological and grammatical work. Focusing on systems that have a conceptual-semantic basis, the contributors reflect and represent the latest approaches in nominal classification research. This invaluable reference work will appeal to linguists, anthropologists and psychologists alike, as well as specialists in languages as diverse as Australian, Amazonian, Mayan and Japanese.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(10)
Gunter Senft
What do we really know about nominal classification systems?	11	(39)
Gunter Senft
A morphosyntactic typology of classifiers	50	(43)
Colette Grinevald
Unusual classifiers in Tariana	93	(21)
Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald
Multiple classifiers systems in Akatek (Mayan)	114	(33)
Roberto Zavala
Ants, ancestors and medicine: a semantic and pragmatic account of classifier constructions in Arrernte (Central Australia)	147	(70)
David P. Wilkins
Visualizing ability and nominal classification: evidence of cultural operation in the agreement rules of Japanese numeral classifiers	217	(22)
Kyoko Inoue
Isolation of units and unification of isolates: the gestalt-functions of classifiers	239	(31)
Jurgen Broschart
Bantu noun class systems: loanword and acquisition evidence of semantic productivity	270	(23)
Katherine Demuth
Gender assignment: a typology and a model	293	(33)
Greville G. Corbett
Norman M. Fraser
Systems of nominal classification: a concluding discussion	326	(17)
John A. Lucy
Index	343