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<p>Research on the lexical and cognitive sources of classifiers and noun categorization in general continues to be a significant theme of typology, and Edmond Cane's discussion of Albanian is bound to engage much interest. However, I'm hesitant about Edmond's
remark "<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: justify; font-size: 12pt;">The main function appears to have been unitizing for the purpose of quantification."
</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Classifier research needs to be supplemented, or even preceded, by actual studies of the role played by classifiers in discourse (e.g., why do speakers unitize/quantify?) There are a number of such studies from the 1980s
on; one of them is my paper <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247583502_Some_Discourse_Functions_of_Classifiers_in_Malay></span></p>
<p>-- a study based on monologic written texts. Especially valuable these days would be research from the spoken dialogic perspective of Conversational Analysis/Interactional Linguistics.</p>
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<p>Paul Hopper</p>
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__________</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-family:Times-Roman,serif">
Paul J. Hopper</p>
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Paul Mellon Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Humanities</p>
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Department of English</p>
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Carnegie Mellon University</p>
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Pittsburgh PA 15213, USA</p>
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<div id="divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000" style="font-size:11pt"><b>From:</b> Lingtyp <lingtyp-bounces@listserv.linguistlist.org> on behalf of Edmond Cane <ecane2000@yahoo.com><br>
<b>Sent:</b> Tuesday, June 18, 2019 9:38 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> lingtyp@listserv.linguistlist.org<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [Lingtyp] Lingtyp Digest, New Issue: Nominal Classifiers in IE languages</font>
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<div><span style="text-align:justify"><i><span style="font-size:12pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">The following is a short summary of an argument I am going to present in a conference on Language Typology, in July. </span></i></span><i style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-size:12pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">As
I have read, the numeral classifiers are common among languages in Asia as well as some other areas of the world. Indo-European languages are not evaluated as rich in such pattern. My knowledge can be limited, so I would appreciate any comments, remarks about
the matter. My main concern is how widespread this pattern is among IE languages, how (if any) these compare to other languages generally described as numeral classifier languages - and such relevant issues</span></i></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif"> </span></i></b></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt">
<b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Albanian with regard to nominal classifiers</span></i></b></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Several authors have analyzed the numeral classifiers (NC) in typological or case studies (Greenberg 1977, Craig 1986, Dixon 1986, Croft 1994, Seifart 2010, etc.). A large number
of Asian languages (with an isolating typological profile), </span><span style="font-size:12pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">but also some Caucasian, West African and American Indian languages,</span><span style="font-size:12pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">
have been evaluated and argued as nominal classifier ones based on certain features (Greenberg 1977, Aikhenvald 2000, Nichols 1992, Bisang 1996, 1999, Seifart 2010, etc.). However, even Albanian, an IE language, is abundant with such constructions, with the
features as defined in the cited literature. Their use is not strictly obligatory. Many enumerated nouns may also choose two or more alternative NCs. The choice is basically semantic and they constitute an open lexical class.</span><br clear="none">
</p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">The main function appears to have been unitizing for the purpose of quantification. Then, because of the means employed, there has been a nominal classification imposed on the
enumerated nouns. There is a clear classification of human versus nonhumans </span>
</p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Num + frymë (souls)</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif"> – for people
</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Num + krerë/kokë (heads)</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif"> – for animals mainly for domestic animals, but also
expanded to other animals (less common).</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">As for inanimates, there is a wide range of NCs, generally having emerged from usage, needs and utilitarian purposes. There is structuring based
<i>on </i></span><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">how speakers interact with objects</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">:</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">5 barrë dru/shkarpa/qymyr, etc. – 5 loads wood/kindling/coal</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">2 krahë dru – 2 arms wood
</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Një dorë miell/kripë/para, etc – one hand flour/salt/money
</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Një grusht miell, ujë, para, etc - a fist flour/water/money</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">This use could be similar to the English: a handful of.., an armful of…, a fistful of….</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Shape and size are often the underlying cognitive factors to the emergence of some NCs
</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">3 kokrra mollë – 3 round-shaped apples</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">2 pëllëmbë mustaqe – 2 palms mustache (measuring 2 palms in length)</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Liquids have their own NCs</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Një bardhak/kupë ujë/qumësht – one bowl/cup of water/milk</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Një kotruve ujë – one bucket water</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Very often liquids and hard matter like sand, flour, sugar etc. have the same NC, their proper container vessels. For the same noun or set of nouns, there can be more than one
alternative, which can be a different container and generally provides for different size or amount.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">The NCs impose numerability on mass nouns but also on countables too (<i>3 kokrra mollë/3 kokrra fiq/10 kokrra domate etc</i>.). It is interesting to note that they convert
even some abstract nouns to numerability </span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">një vorbull ere (a swirl of wind);
</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">një tis avulli (a soft breeze/cover of steam),
</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">një shkundje ere (a shake of wind) etc.</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">It has been observed even in other languages that the NCs do not simply serve the purpose of providing for unitizing and counting of the nouns. The numeral NPs very often involve
the numeral ‘one’. It can also be seen that in some cases the opposition underlying the presence of the NC is that of
<i>none</i> vs. <i>any</i>. </span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Metonymy is a very common source:
<i>breath/soul</i> for people, <i>heads</i> for cattle and some other animals, <i>
roots</i> for trees, etc. The most common mechanism is the metaphorical projection of certain schemas, lexical items, which already ‘carry numerability’, onto new scenes and schemas. From idiosyncratic lexical items, they spread and may become more or less
generic. Hence, the NCs can be considered as ‘vessels’ of numerability.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Most of the usage underlying the NCs has almost faded away: either such vessels are not used nowadays, or, such work is not carried out in the present. However, the pattern
remains strong and large. The historical emergence and use must have provided for the deeply embedded cognitive patterns, which accounts for the productive spread of the NCs. The presence of several alternatives for the same elements supports this view too.
The NCs are idiosyncratic lexemes, and their lexical content imposes constraint on their use. However, the strength of the pattern seems to have encouraged the spread beyond the expected line. This accounts for their expansion to abstract nouns, attempting
to unitize or individualize elements like wind, sea water, or abstract ones like pleasure, anger, work, time, etc. Some NCs have even provided for figurative collocations.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Albanian has a rich system of NCs, but very few collective classifiers (<i>a series of, a heap of, a pack of, etc.</i>) – comparative to languages like English. While the NCs
are highly constrained, the collective classifiers apply to large sets. The few ones open to humans, other animates as well as inanimates, (<i>një grumbull …– a collection of …; një mori … - a series of …</i>) or, for animals and inanimates (<i>tufë</i> –
also used for human, when implying brutes, primitives, uneducated), or for a wide range of inanimates (<i>pirg – a heap of</i>). Even the existing (low-level) constraint seems to be basically due to the pre-emptive effect of the few constructions in use.
</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">The typical NCs appear in a morpho-syntactic blend, a straight juxtaposition, just like in the numeral constructions (Num + N). There are some NCs which can appear in both,
the straight blend with simple form juxtaposition or having the enumerated noun in ablative (indefinite), which is actually a simple form, and very common in many NPs. The NCs have two forms: singular for numeral ‘one’ and plural for ‘two’ or higher. Both
forms are indefinite.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">The numeral constructions can also develop into a full inflected NP, in which case it is not a numeral classifier NP:</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Një/dy barrë dru – one/two load woods</span></i></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Barra e druve – the load of woods</span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif"></span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Hence, Albanian appears as a numeral classifier language, and this requires an explanation considering inheritance (as an IE language) as well as the areal environment. In addition,
Greenberg argues that the numeral classifier system developed in languages with a prior mass/unit nouns distinction. Albanian obviously does not qualify as such.
</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">The strength of the pattern in Albanian can be regarded as a deeply embedded behavioral pattern, supported/supplied /provided for by the large number of available schemas, the
wide usage and the already functional needs. The large number of the NC constructions represent
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">a particular combination of semantic structure and information packaging.
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">This evidence may contribute
</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">to what can be learned from classifier systems with regard to the nature of language organization.</span><span style="font-size:12.0pt; line-height:107%; font-family:Times New Roman,serif"></span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="text-align:justify">
<b><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt; line-height:107%">References</span></i></b></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2000. Classifiers. A typology of noun categorization devices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Bisang, Walter. 1996. Areal typology and grammaticalization: processes of grammaticalization based on nouns and verbs in East and Mainland South East Asian languages. Studies in Language 20.
519–97.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Bisang, Walter . 1999. Classifiers in East and Southeast Asian languages. Counting and beyond. Numeral types and changes worldwide, ed. by Jadranka Gvozdanový´c, 113–85. Berlin and New York:
Mouton de Gruyter, Trends in</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fDefault" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 118.</span><span style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif; color:rgb(34,34,34)"></span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Croft, William. 1990.
<i>Typology and universals</i>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif; color:rgb(34,34,34)">Croft, William (1994) Semantic universals in classifier systems, Word, 45:2,145-171,</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Croft, William. 2014. Grammatical categories, semantic classes and information packaging. Draft chapter of book project
<i>Morphosyntax: Constructions of the world’s languages. </i></span><a shape="rect" href="http://www.unm.edu/~wcroft/Papers/Morphosyntax-ch1-Jan14.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" id="LPlnk166585" previewremoved="true"><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">http://www.unm.edu/~wcroft/Papers/Morphosyntax-ch1-Jan14.pdf</span></a><span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fDefault" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt">
<span style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif; color:rgb(34,34,34)">Greenberg, J. (1972) Numeral Classifiers and Substantival Number: Problems in the Genesis of a Linguistic Type. Working papers on Language universals, No. 9..1-40,
</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Haspelmath, Martin. 2010a. Comparative concepts and descriptive categories in crosslinguistic studies.
<i>Language </i>86. 663–687.</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif">Nichols, Johanna. 1992. Linguistic diversity in space and time. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
</span></p>
<p class="ydp7543b32byiv0384512045ydp1215608fMsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:6.0pt; line-height:normal">
<span style="font-size:10pt; font-family:Times New Roman,serif; color:rgb(34,34,34)">Seifart, F. (2010). Nominal classification. <i>Language and linguistics compass</i>, <i>4</i>(8), 719-736.</span></p>
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