36.803, Confs: 53rd Poznań Linguistic Meeting Thematic Session: Rethinking the semantics of classifiers (Poland)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-803. Thu Mar 06 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.803, Confs: 53rd Poznań Linguistic Meeting Thematic Session: Rethinking the semantics of classifiers (Poland)

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Date: 06-Mar-2025
From: Éva Dékány [dekany.eva at nytud.hu]
Subject: 53rd Poznań Linguistic Meeting Thematic Session: Rethinking the semantics of classifiers


53rd Poznań Linguistic Meeting Thematic Session: Rethinking the
semantics of classifiers

Date: 21-Sep-2025 - 22-Sep-2025
Location: Poznań, Poland
Contact: Éva Dékány
Contact Email: dekany.eva at nytud.hu
Meeting URL: https://wa.amu.edu.pl/plm/2025/Sessions

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Semantics; Syntax;
Text/Corpus Linguistics; Typology

Abstract submission deadline: 30 March 2025
Submission guidelines:
https://wa.amu.edu.pl/plm/2025/Abstract_submission
Most studies on classifiers focus on how to use formal criteria to
distinguish between different morphosyntactic subtypes based on the
contexts in which classifiers appear. Commonly distinguished types
include numeral classifiers, as well as noun classifiers, possessive
classifiers, verbal classifiers, deictic classifiers and locative
classifiers (Aikhenvald 2000). In contrast, relatively little
attention has been devoted to the nature of semantic categorization.
Examples of such fundamental issues include the cross-linguistic
distribution of semantic values in relation to perception and
cognition (Allan 1977; Kemmerer 2019); implicational relations among
semantic values (Croft 1994); preferred semantics in classifier types
(Aikhenvald 2000; Grinevald 2000); semantic and discourse functions of
classifiers (Contini-Morava and Kilarski 2013); as well the relative
contribution of nouns vs. classifiers to reference (Lucy 2000; Senft
2000). However, the nature of these preferences or uses has never been
demonstrated quantitatively, thus limiting their explanatory value.
This workshop thus aims to explore two related topics:
1) Given a particular noun, how does the grammar determine which
classifier to assign to it? In other words, what are the semantic
underpinnings of noun-classifier collocations?
2) How can we determine the semantic commonalities of nouns that
collocate with the same classifier, such that these can be used as a
semantic label for a given classifier?
Questions to be addressed include but are not limited to:
• What are the best methodologies to describe and determine classifier
semantics?
• Currently used semantic labels for classifiers usually rely on a few
randomly sampled nouns that commonly occur with that classifier. How
can we use corpus data to verify, refine or challenge these labels?
• How do classifiers specify the characteristics of nouns with which
they combine? What are the strengths and weaknesses of previously
suggested analyses which hold that classifiers introduce an assertion,
a presupposition, or a conventional implicature to restrict the range
of nouns they combine with?
• Do classifiers reflect, bring to focus or foreground semantic
characteristics already inherent in nouns, or do they add or impose
meaning components which are not necessarily part of the noun’s
meaning?
• What can we learn from cases where the semantic constraints normally
placed on nouns by classifiers are violated? Under what circumstances
do these violations occur, and how do they contribute to expressions
of attitudes, honorification, etc.?
• Are there any correlations between morphosyntactic classifier type
and classifier semantics?
Improving our present state of knowledge regarding theoretical and
methodological aspects of classifier semantics is important because it
can form a basis of cross-linguistic comparative studies, it is a
prerequisite for the construction of databases of classifier
languages, and it is also critical for the study of cognitive
correlates of nominal classification and linguistic categorization in
general.
Convenors: Marcin Kilarski (UAM), Marc Allassonnière-Tang (CNRS), Éva
Dékány (HUN-REN)
Bibliography
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. 2000. Classifiers: A typology of noun
categorization devices. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Allan, Keith. 1977. “Classifiers”, Language 53, 2: 285-311.
Allassonnière-Tang, Marc and Marcin Kilarski (eds.). 2023. Nominal
classification in Asia and Oceania: Functional and diachronic
perspectives. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 362.) Amsterdam &
Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Contini-Morava, Ellen and Marcin Kilarski. 2013. “Functions of nominal
classification”, Language Sciences 40: 263-299.
Croft, William. 1994. “Semantic universals in classifier systems”,
WORD 45: 145-172.
Fedden, Sebastian and Greville G. Corbett. 2017. “Gender and
classifiers in concurrent systems: Refining the typology of nominal
classification”, Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 2, 1: 1-47.
Grinevald, Colette. 2000. “A morphosyntactic typology of classifiers”,
in: Gunter Senft (ed.), Systems of nominal classification. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 50-92.
Kemmerer, David. 2019. Concepts in the brain: The view from
cross-linguistic diversity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lucy, John A. 2000. “Systems of nominal classification: A concluding
discussion”, in: Gunter Senft (ed.), Systems of nominal
classification. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 326-341.
Senft, Gunter. 1996. Classificatory particles in Kilivila. New York:
Oxford University Press.
Senft, Gunter. 2000. “What do we really know about nominal
classification systems?”, in: Gunter Senft (ed.), Systems of nominal
classification. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 11-49.



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