Classifiers and Plurals in 7 languages


Date Submitted:	19-Sep-2012
From:	YunJu Chen
Subject:	Classifiers and Plurals in 7 languages
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Notice:	Borer (2005) claimed that classifiers and plurals are the same category, so they can’t co-occur. However, classifiers and plurals were both exist in 7 languages including Mokilese, Kham, Ulithian, Hatam, Tuvaluan, Khmer, and Indonesian. So I try to find the examples with the co-occurrence of classifiers and plurals in the languages to make sure whether it is possible for classifiers and plurals to co-occur in a sentence in the 7 languages. For example, classifiers and plurals can co-occur in a sentence in Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Belhare, and Ainu. (1)san ge xuesheng men three CL students PL 'three students' (Mandarin Chinese) (2)gakusei-tati san-nin student-PL three-CL 'three students' (Japanese) (3)sip- -pa mai-chi two-CL person-PL[ABS] ‘two people’ (Belhare) (4)okkaypo utar tu-n young.man PL two-human.CLF 'two young men' (Ainu) Could anyone tell me whether classifiers and plurals can co-occur in the same sentence in the 7 languages? (Mokilese,Kham,Ulithian,Hatam,Tuvaluan,Khmer,and Indonesian) Thank you very much.