Docs / Syntax / Category / Classifier / Basic

Classifiers

import Linglib.Syntax.Category.Classifier.Basic

Source

This file defines the word-class record for classifiers and the vocabulary of Aikhenvald's typology of noun categorization devices. Classifier is the lexical entry Fragments store in their inventories: a morph, which is how the classifier attaches and its form, with its spelling in a native script and its gloss. Which nouns a classifier counts, whether it is a language's general classifier, and which semantic parameters motivate it are facts about a whole system or analyses of it, not properties of the entry: a noun records the classifiers it takes (ClassifiedNoun), and a typology's coding of a system lives in the study that makes it.

A device is described by where its morphemes occur and what they characterize, the locus and the constituent, and its kind (noun class, numeral classifier, verbal classifier, …) is the classification of that pair by the book's table of scopes, never a stored label. How a device is realized is likewise read off its entries where it has them: the segmental realizations are the attachment kinds of Morphology.Morph, and the book's further devices for marking noun classes on a noun are the remaining cases of Realization.

Main definitions

Main results

Implementation notes

The principle of assignment is not a type here. Every noun class system has a semantic core, so assignment is never wholly morphological or phonological, and the semantic and formal rules of a gender system are Gender.AssignmentSystem.

References

Declarations

A classifier lexical entry records its morph, which gives its attachment kind and its form (a romanization where the language has a native script), its spelling in that script, and its gloss.

structure ClassifierL57–65
extends Morphology.Morph :
Type
  • kind : Kind
  • form : String
  • script : Option String

    The spelling in the native script.

  • gloss : String

    The gloss.

Derives DecidableEq, Repr.

Used by Classifier.realization

Used in Fragments/Japanese/Classifiers, Fragments/Japanese/Nouns, Fragments/Mandarin/Classifiers, Fragments/Mandarin/Nouns, Fragments/Mayan/Chol/Classifiers and 5 more

Semantic parameters

The semantic parameters noun categorization devices encode, in three large classes — animacy, physical properties, and function — with kind-specific preferences. Speech register is distinguished from the referent's social status, since honorific classifiers can index the style of speech rather than the rank of the referent.

inductive Classifier.ParameterL71–114
:
Type
  • animacy : Parameter

    Animate versus inanimate.

  • humanness : Parameter

    Human versus non-human.

  • sex : Parameter

    Male versus female.

  • socialStatus : Parameter

    The social status or rank of a human referent.

  • kinship : Parameter

    The kinship relationship of a human referent.

  • register : Parameter

    The speech register (honorific, common, humiliative) rather than the referent's status.

  • shape : Parameter

    Shape and dimensionality.

  • direction : Parameter

    Vertical versus horizontal orientation.

  • interioricity : Parameter

    Differentiation of inside from outside, as between rings and holes.

  • boundedness : Parameter

    Whether an outlined entity is delimited.

  • size : Parameter

    Large versus small.

  • consistency : Parameter

    Plasticity under manipulation, flexible versus rigid.

  • constitution : Parameter

    Physical state, such as liquid or solid.

  • material : Parameter

    The material an object is made of.

  • nature : Parameter

    Other inherent, time-stable nature, often realized by classifiers specific to one noun.

  • function : Parameter

    How an object is used or handled.

  • arrangement : Parameter

    The configuration of objects, such as a coil or a row.

  • quanta : Parameter

    A quantity of objects, such as a cluster or a flock.

  • colour : Parameter

    Colour, perceptually salient but never a basis for noun categorization.

Derives DecidableEq, Repr, Fintype.

Used in Aikhenvald2000, Downing1996

Kinds of device, by locus and constituent

The morphosyntactic scope a noun categorization device operates in.

inductive Classifier.ScopeL118–136
:
Type
  • headModifierNP : Scope

    Inside a head-modifier NP, with head-modifier agreement.

  • predicateArgument : Scope

    Outside the NP, with predicate-argument agreement.

  • noun : Scope

    The noun itself.

  • numeralNP : Scope

    A numeral or quantifier NP.

  • possessiveNP : Scope

    A possessive NP.

  • clause : Scope

    The clause.

  • adpositionalNP : Scope

    An adpositional NP.

  • attributiveNP : Scope

    An attributive NP with a deictic.

Derives DecidableEq, Repr, Fintype.

Used by Classifier.Device.ofScope, Classifier.Device.ofScope_surjective, Classifier.Device.ofScope_eq_some_nounClass_iff, Classifier.Device.existsUnique_ofScope_eq_some

Used in Aikhenvald2000

The constituent a noun categorization device characterizes.

inductive Classifier.ConstituentL138–152
:
Type

Derives DecidableEq, Repr, Fintype.

Used by Classifier.Device.ofScope, Classifier.Device.ofScope_surjective, Classifier.Device.ofScope_eq_some_nounClass_iff, Classifier.Device.existsUnique_ofScope_eq_some

Used in Aikhenvald2000

The nine kinds of noun categorization device, focal points on a continuum individuated by locus and the constituent characterized.

inductive Classifier.DeviceL154–180
:
Type
  • nounClass : Device

    Noun class or gender, a closed obligatory system realized by agreement inside and sometimes outside the noun phrase, with an inventory often of two to ten.

  • nounClassifier : Device

    A noun classifier characterizes the head noun itself, independently of other NP elements, as a free form or an affix on the noun.

  • numeralClassifier : Device

    A numeral classifier characterizes nouns in numeral and quantifier phrases, as a free form or an affix on the numeral, with an often large inventory.

  • relationalClassifier : Device

    A relational classifier characterizes the possessive relation in a possessive NP.

  • possessedClassifier : Device

    A possessed classifier characterizes the possessed noun in a possessive NP.

  • possessorClassifier : Device

    A possessor classifier characterizes the possessor, and is very rare.

  • verbalClassifier : Device

    A verbal classifier marks agreement on the verb with an S or O argument, as an incorporated classifier, an affix, or a suppletive classificatory stem.

  • locativeClassifier : Device

    A locative classifier marks agreement with the head noun in an adpositional NP.

  • deicticClassifier : Device

    A deictic classifier occurs with articles and demonstratives, marking spatial location or determination.

Derives DecidableEq, Repr, Fintype.

Used by Classifier.Device.ofScope, Classifier.Device.ofScope_surjective, Classifier.Device.existsUnique_ofScope_eq_some

Used in Aikhenvald2000

ofScope s c is the kind of device with locus s that characterizes c. Noun classes sit inside a head-modifier NP or agree with an argument outside it, noun classifiers sit on the noun and numeral classifiers in the numeral NP, the three possessive kinds differ in the part of the possessive NP they characterize, verbal classifiers agree with an argument in the clause, and locative and deictic classifiers sit in adpositional and attributive NPs.

def Classifier.Device.ofScopeL182–198
:
Scope → Constituent → Option Device
Equations

Built from , ,

Used by Classifier.Device.ofScope_surjective, Classifier.Device.ofScope_eq_some_nounClass_iff, Classifier.Device.existsUnique_ofScope_eq_some

Used in Aikhenvald2000

Realization

The surface realization of a noun categorization device is a segmental morph, attached on a side of its host as an affix or a clitic or free, or one of the further devices by which noun classes are marked on the noun itself.

inductive Classifier.RealizationL219–237
:
Type

Derives DecidableEq, Repr, Fintype.

Used by Classifier.realization

Used in Aikhenvald2000