non-classifier langueges without plural inflextion

[Johanna Nichols]

>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

Appendix 2 in my book 'Linguistic Diversity in Space and Time' (1992) can
give you a list of languages that probably meet this description.  This is
on pp. 294ff.  Column 34 tells you whether the language has numeral
classifiers ("Y") or not ("N"), and column 37 tells you whether it
neutralizes singular/plural oppositions in nouns.  (This applies to
languages that do have number oppositions somewhere in their grammar.)  A
language that has "N" in col. 34 and "Y" in col. 37 is one that has no
numeral classifiers and does fail to inflect at least some nouns for number.

Johanna Nichols


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Johanna Nichols
Professor
Department of Slavic Languages
Mailcode 2979
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

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