1st Edition
Numeral Classifiers and Classifier Languages Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
Focusing mainly on classifiers, Numeral Classifiers and Classifier Languages offers a deep investigation of three major classifier languages: Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. This book provides detailed discussions well supported by empirical evidence and corpus analyses. Theoretical hypotheses regarding differences and commonalities between numeral classifier languages and other mainly article languages are tested to seek universals or typological characteristics. The essays collected here from leading scholars in different fields promise to be greatly significant in the field of linguistics for several reasons. First, it targets three representative classifier languages in Asia. It also provides critical clues and suggests solutions to syntactic, semantic, psychological, and philosophical issues about classifier constructions. Finally, it addresses ensuing debates that may arise in the field of linguistics in general and neighboring inter-disciplinary areas. This book should be of great interest to advanced students and scholars of East Asian languages.
Chapter I: Numeral Classifiers and Diversity of Classifier Systems
Byeong-uk Yi
Chapter II: Taxonomy of Numeral Classifiers: A Formal Semantic Proposal
Jiun-Shiung Wu and One-Soon Her
Chapter III: Japanese Semantics and the Mass/Count Distinction
Takashi Ilda
Chapter IV: A Continuum-Based Approach to the Count-Mass Distinction in Korean
Kwang-sup Kim
Chapter V: Anti-Generic (Existential) and Distributive Nature of NumCL-Marking
Chungmin Lee
Chapter VI: Classifiers, Articles, and Bare Nominals
Byeong-uk Yi
Chapter VII: Japanese Numeral Quantifiers that Count Events
Mana Kobuchi-Philip
Chapter VIII: How Classifiers Affect the Mental Representation of Entities
Mutsumi Imai and Junko Kanero
Chapter IX: Descriptive Function of Numeral Classifiers: A Corpus Based Analysis of Numeral Classifiers in Korean
Young-Wha Kim
Biography
Chungmin Lee is Professor Emeritus it the Department of Linguistics at Seoul National University and a member of National Academy of Sciences, the Republic of Korea.
Young-Wha Kim is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English Language & Literature at Hallym University in the Republic of Korea.
Byeong-uk Yi is Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Toronto in Canada.
'This is the first volume, published for an international audience, that draws together a group of leading researchers in numeral classifiers in Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The articles included in the volume provide not only fresh data on numeral classifiers but also innovative approaches to the topic. The volume will serve as a useful resource for advanced postgraduate students and all scholars who work on the topic.' — Jaejung Song, Professor, Department of English and Linguistics, University of Otago, New Zealand
