non-classifier langueges without plural inflextion

[Matthew S Dryer]

Many languages, perhaps even a majority, allow bare nouns to be
interpreted as singular or plural in that plural marking is not required.
Among languages that do not inflect nouns for number at all, some employ
plural words, and many, probably the majority of these, do not require
classifiers.  Among those that lack either plural inflection or plural
words, I suspect many do not require classifiers.  Kutenai is an example
of this.

Matthew Dryer


On Wed, 4 Nov 1998, bingfu wrote:

> Dear netters,
> 	Anybody can kindly provide me with
> examples for languages that count nouns without classifiers
> (use Number directly with Nouns without Classifiers) and, at the same
> time, do not inflect their nouns for number?  That is, a bare noun
> can be interpreted as singular or plural ('book' meaning 'a book' or
> 'books') and can also occur with a number directly ('three book').
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Bingfu Lu
>