A guide to gender and classifiers /
Almost all languages of the world have noun categorization devices in their grammar. The most widespread is linguistic gender--grammatical classes of nouns based on core semantic properties such as sex (female and male), animacy, humanness, and also shape and size. Numeral classifiers categorize the...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford :
Oxford University Press,
[2025]
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| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | Almost all languages of the world have noun categorization devices in their grammar. The most widespread is linguistic gender--grammatical classes of nouns based on core semantic properties such as sex (female and male), animacy, humanness, and also shape and size. Numeral classifiers categorize the noun in terms of its inherent nature, animacy, shape and form, and occur next to a numeral or a quantifier. Further types include noun classifiers, possessive classifiers, verbal classifiers, and a number of rarer types (locative and deictic classifiers). Gender and various types of classifiers share discourse functions, and are hardly ever semantically redundant. Gender and classifiers can refer anaphorically to a previously mentioned entity and serve as referent-tracking devices. They change as the society changes, reflecting the ways in which language and social environment are integrated with one another. The meanings, and the uses, of noun categorization devices offer unique insights into human cognition. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xxiv, 472 pages) : illustrations. |
| Audience: | Specialized. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and indexes. |
| ISBN: | 9780191895982 0191895989 9780192608956 0192608959 |