Nominal Classification
Nominal Classification

Author: Marcin Kilarski

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2013-12-18

Total Pages: 421

ISBN-13: 9027270902

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This book offers the first comprehensive survey of the study of gender and classifiers throughout the history of Western linguistics. Based on an analysis of over 200 genetically and typologically diverse languages, the author shows that these seemingly arbitrary and redundant categories play in fact a central role in the lexicon, grammar and the organization of discourse. As a result, the often contradictory approaches to their functionality and semantic motivation encapsulate the evolving conceptions of such issues as cognitive and cultural correlates of linguistic structure, the diverse functions of grammatical categories, linguistic complexity, agreement phenomena and the interplay between lexicon and grammar. The combination of a typological and historiographic perspective adopted here allows the reader to appreciate the detail and insight of earlier, supposedly ‘prescientific’ accounts in light of the data now available and to examine contemporary discussions in the context of prevailing conceptions in the study of language at different points in its history since antiquity.

Systems of Nominal Classification
Systems of Nominal Classification

Author: Gunter Senft

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2000-08-03

Total Pages: 366

ISBN-13: 9780521770750

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A major linguistic study of nominal classification systems across a variety of languages, first published in 2000.

The Dynamics of Nominal Classification
The Dynamics of Nominal Classification

Author: Ruth Singer

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2016-02-22

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1501501208

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The use of grammatical gender in the Australian language Mawng calls into question prevailing ideas about the functions of nominal classification systems. Mawng’s gender system has a strong semantic basis and plays an important role in the construction of meaning in discourse. Gender agreement in verbs is frequently lexicalized, creating idioms called lexicalised agreement verbs that are structurally similar to noun-verb idioms. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in nominal classification or cross-linguistic approaches to idioms.

Nominal Classification in Aboriginal Australia
Nominal Classification in Aboriginal Australia

Author: Mark Harvey

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 307

ISBN-13: 9027230404

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This volume aims to extend both the range of analyses and the database on nominal classification systems. Previous analyses of nominal classification systems have focussed on two areas: the semantics of the classification system and the role of the system in discourse. In many nominal classification systems, there appear to be a significant percentage of nominals with an arbitrary classification. There is a considerable body of literature aimed at elucidating the semantic bases of clasification in such systems, thereby reducing the degree of apparent arbitrariness. Contributors to this volume continue this line of enquiry, but also propose that arbitrariness in itself has a role from a wider socio-cultural perspective. Previous analyses of the discourse role of classification systems posit that they play a significant role in referential tracking. For the languages surveyed in this volume, contributors propose that reference instantiation is an equally significant function, and indeed that reference instantiation and tracking cannot be properly divided from one another. This volume provides detailed information on classification in a number of northern Australian languages, whose systems are otherwise poorly known.

Nominal Classification in Asia and Oceania
Nominal Classification in Asia and Oceania

Author: Marc Allassonnière-Tang

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2023-12-01

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 9027249245

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Linguists have long been interested in systems of nominal classification due to their diverse functions as well as cognitive and cultural correlates. Among others, ongoing research has focused on semantic, functional and morphosyntactic properties of complex systems such as co-occurring gender and numeral classifiers. Such approaches have typically focused on the languages of north-western South America and Papua New Guinea. This volume proposes to fill in a gap in existing research by focusing on Asia, based on case studies from languages belonging to a wide range of families, i.e., Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Hmong-Mien, Indo-European, Mongolic, Sino-Tibetan and Tai-Kadai as well as the language isolate Nivkh. Gender and classifiers in these languages are approached within several different perspectives, i.e., functional, typological and diachronic, thus revealing complex patterns in their lexical and pragmatic functions as well as origin, development and loss. Describing and analysing such properties is a unique and innovative contribution of the volume.

The Diachrony of Classification Systems
The Diachrony of Classification Systems

Author: William B. McGregor

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2018-05-14

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 9027264139

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Classification is a popular topic in typological, descriptive and theoretical linguistics. This volume is the first to deal specifically with the diachrony of linguistic systems of classification. It comprises original papers that examine the ways in which linguistic classification systems arise, change, and dissipate in both natural circumstances and in circumstances of attrition. The role of diffusion in such processes is explored, as well as the question of what can be diffused. The volume is not restricted to nominal systems of classification, but also includes papers dealing with the less well-known phenomenon of verbal classification. Languages from a wide spread of world regions are examined, including Africa, Amazonia, Australia, Eurasia, Oceania, and Mesoamerica. The volume will be of interest to linguistic typologists, descriptive linguists, historical linguists, and grammaticalization theorists.

The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics
The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics

Author: Dirk Geeraerts

Publisher: OUP USA

Published: 2010-06-09

Total Pages: 1366

ISBN-13: 0199738637

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With 49 chapters written by experts in the field, this reference volume authoritatively covers cognitive linguistics, from basic concepts and models to practical applications.

Explaining Language Structure Through Systems Interaction
Explaining Language Structure Through Systems Interaction

Author: Zygmunt Frajzyngier

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2003-01-01

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 9789027229632

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This book proposes a framework for describing languages through the description of relationships among lexicon, morphology, syntax, and phonology. The framework is based on the notion of formal coding means; the principle of functional transparency; the notion of functional domains; and the notion of systems interaction in the coding of functional domains. The study is based on original analyses of cross-linguistic data.The fundamental finding of the study is that different languages may code different functional domains, which must be discovered by analyzing the formal means available in each language. The first part of the book proposes a methodology for discovering functional domains and the second part describes the properties of various functional domains. The book presents new cross-linguistic analyses of theoretical issues including agreement; phenomena attributed to government; nominal classification; prerequisites for and implications of linear order coding; and defining characteristics of lexical categories. The study also contributes new analyses of specific problems in individual languages.