Bare classifier phrases in Sinitic languages: A typological perspective
Bare classifier phrases in Sinitic languages: A typological perspective
A bare classifier phrase refers to one composed of just a classifier and its head noun without any numerals or demonstratives preceding the classifier. Bare classifier phrases ([CL-N] phrases) can be found in most Sinitic languages. However, the syntactic distribution and semantic interpretation of bare classifier phrases may vary in different languages, which allows categorization into one of seven types. This chapter re-examines these special phrases in a typological perspective and puts forward three implicational universals with respect to their syntactic distribution and semantic interpretation. These three implicational universals are: preverbal [CL-N] phrases ⊃ postverbal [CL-N] phrases; preverbal indefinite [CL-N] phrases ⊃ preverbal definite [CL-N] phrases; and postverbal definite [CL-NP] phrases ⊃ postverbal indefinite [CL-N] phrases. Finally, some tentative explanations are offered for the three implicational universals.
Keywords: bare classifier, definiteness, indefiniteness, demonstrative, numeral one, implicational universal, Sinitic language
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