non-classifier languages without plural inflection

[Jan Rijkhoff]

Dear Bingfu Lu,

I have investigated nouns in a representative sample of 50 languages and
discussed the phenomenon you are interested in (I call the nouns
in question "set nouns") in a number of publications:

1. "Nominal aspect". Journal of Semantics 8 (1990), 291-309 (where
   I present a prelimary version of my typology of nominal
   subcategories - see below)
2. "The noun phrase: a typological study of its form and
   structure". Ph.D. dissertation, University of Amsterdam
   (revised version to be published in the near future)
3. "Order in the noun phrase in the languages of Europe".
   In Anna Siewierska ed. (1997), Constituent Order in the
   Languages of Europe (Empirical Approaches to Language Typology,
   EuroTyp 20-1). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Pp.321-382.

And in case you read Dutch:
4. "De ontbrekende categorie: over symmetrie in de onderliggende
   structuur". Gramma/TTT 4-3, 199-222. (Special issue on Simon
   Dik's Functional Grammar).

Using the two features SHAPE and HOMOGENEITY, I distinguish six major
noun types that are used to refer to spatial entities (ignoring proper
names):

a. SINGULAR OBJECT NOUNS (no classifier; plural marking obligatory
   with and without modifying mumeral);
b. COLLECTIVE NOUNS (no classifier; plural marking obligatory with
   and without modifying mumeral - the difference with singular
   object nouns is of course that they do not denote a singular
   object);
c. SET NOUNS (no classifier; as a rule so-called number markers
   -if used at all- are optional without a modifying numeral and
   oblgatorily absent with a numeral. I have argued that the
   so-called number markers are in fact nominal aspect markers);
d. SORT NOUNS (require a sortal classifier when modified by a
   numeral; no number marking);
e. MASS NOUNS (require a mensural classifier when modified by a
   numeral; no number marking);
d. GENERAL NOUNS (in languages that do not distinguish between
   sortal and mensural classifiers; these languages use a "general
   classifier" instead; no number marking).

Jan Rijkhoff

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jan Rijkhoff
Dept. of General Linguistics,  University of Amsterdam
Spuistraat 210, NL-1012 VT  Amsterdam, the Netherlands
phone   +31 20 525-3857 / +31 20 525-3864 (secr.)
fax     +31 20 525-3021 / +31 20 525-3052
e-mail  Jan.Rijkhoff at hum.uva.nl
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++