Numeral classifiers may have other functions too; in Chinese, they are commonly used when a noun is preceded by a demonstrative (word meaning "this" or "that").
While noun classes are defined in terms of agreement, classifiers do not alter the form of other elements in a clause.
The situations in which classifiers may or must appear depend on the grammar of the language in question, but they are frequently required when a noun is accompanied by a numeral.
三sānthree位wèiCL[human]学生xuéshēngstudent(三位學生) 三 位 学生sān wèi xuéshēngthree CL[human] student"three students"三sānthree棵kēCL[tree]树shùtree(三棵樹) 三 棵 树sān kē shùthree CL[tree] tree"three trees"三sānthree只zhīCL[animal]鸟niǎobird(三隻鳥) 三 只 鸟sān zhī niǎothree CL[animal] bird"three birds"三sānthree条tiáoCL[long-wavy]河hériver(三條河) 三 条 河sān tiáo héthree CL[long-wavy] river"three rivers"个 (個) gè, is also often used in informal speech as a general classifier, with almost any noun, taking the place of more specific classifiers.
Measure words play a similar role to classifiers, except that they denote a particular quantity of something (a drop, a cupful, a pint, etc.
[14][15] Classifiers are not generally a feature of English or other European languages, although classifier-like constructions are found with certain nouns.
Slavic languages put the second noun in the genitive case (e.g. Russian чаша пива (chasha piva), literally "a beer's glass"), but Bulgarian, having lost the Slavic case system, uses expressions identical to German (e.g. чаша пиво).
[16] In the following example from Kuuk Thaayorre, the specific borrowed noun tin.meat 'tinned meat' is preceded by its generic classifier minh 'meat.'
Most nouns take the generic classifier ṭa, although there are many more specific measure words, such as jon, which is only used to count humans.
Nôe-ṭanine-CLghoṛiclockNôe-ṭa ghoṛinine-CL clockNine clocksKôe-ṭahow.many-CLbalishpillowKôe-ṭa balishhow.many-CL pillowHow many pillowsÔnek-jonmany-CLlokpersonÔnek-jon lokmany-CL personMany peopleChar-pañch-jonfour-five-CLshikkhôkteacherChar-pañch-jon shikkhôkfour-five-CL teacherFour or five teachersSimilar to the situation in Chinese, measuring nouns in Bengali without their corresponding measure words (e.g. aṭ biṛal instead of aṭ-ṭa biṛal "eight cats") would typically be considered ungrammatical.
However, it is common to omit the classifier when it counts a noun that is not in the nominative case (e.g., aṭ biṛaler desh (eight cats-possessive country ), or panc bhUte khelo (five ghosts-instrumental ate)) or when the number is very large (e.g., ek sho lok esechhe ("One hundred people have come.")).
Classifiers may also be dropped when the focus of the sentence is not on the actual counting but on a statement of fact (e.g., amar char chhele (I-possessive four boy, I have four sons)).
The presence of classifiers in Northeast India may be linked to contact with the Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic languages spoken in the region.
သူθùThuheတူtùtuchopstickနှစ်n̥əhnatwoချောင်းt͡ʃʰáʊɴchaungCL:long and thin itemsရှိʃḭshihaveတယ်dèdePRESသူ တူ နှစ် ချောင်း ရှိ တယ်θù tù n̥ə t͡ʃʰáʊɴ ʃḭ dèThu tu hna chaung shi dehe chopstick two {CL:long and thin items} have PRESHe has two chopsticks.စားပွဲzəbwéZabwetableခုနစ်kʰwɛʔ n̥əkhun-hnasevenလုံးlóʊɴlonCL:round, globular thingsရှိʃḭshihaveလားlàlaQစားပွဲ ခုနစ် လုံး ရှိ လားzəbwé {kʰwɛʔ n̥ə} lóʊɴ ʃḭ làZabwe khun-hna lon shi latable seven {CL:round, globular things} have QDo you have seven tables?လူlùluoneတစ်tətaCL:peopleဦးúupersonလူ တစ် ဦးlù tə úlu ta uone CL:people personone person or a personThai employs classifiers in the widest range of NP constructions compared to similar classifier languages from the area.
The choice of a classifier for each noun is somewhat arbitrary and must be memorized by learners of Chinese, but often relates to the object's physical characteristics.
For example, the character 張/张 zhāng is originally a verb meaning "to span (a bow)", and is now used as a classifier to denote squarish flat objects such as paper, hide, or (the surface of) table, and can be more or less translated as "sheet".
The character 把 bǎ was originally a verb meaning to grasp/grip, but is now more commonly used as the noun for "handle", and as the classifier for "handful".
The appropriate classifier is chosen based on the kind and shape of the noun, and combines with the numeral, sometimes adopting several different forms.
The appropriate classifier is chosen based on the kind and shape of the noun, and combines with the numeral, sometimes adopting several different forms.
For example, jang (장) is used to count sheets of paper, blankets, leaves, and other similar objects: "ten bus tickets" could be translated beoseu pyo yeol-jang (버스 표 열 장), literally "bus ticket ten-[classifier]".
SeekorOne-CL:animalskerbauwater-buffalo.Seekor kerbauOne-CL:animals water-buffalo.A water-buffalo.DuaTwoorangCL:peoplepelajarstudentsituthat.Dua orang pelajar ituTwo CL:people students that.Those two students.BerapaHow manybuahCL:generalkeretacarsyangrelative worddijual?sold?//TigaThreebuah.CL:generalBerapa buah kereta yang dijual?
/ Three of them.SecawanOne-cupkopi.coffeeSecawan kopi.One-cup coffeeA cup of coffee.SayaImendengarheardempatfourdasCL:gunshotstembakan pistol.gunshots.Saya mendengar empat das {tembakan pistol}.I heard four CL:gunshots gunshots.I heard four gunshots.SayaImintawould likesebatangone-CL:cylindrical objectsrokok.cigarette.Saya minta sebatang rokok.I {would like} {one-CL:cylindrical objects} cigarette.I would like a cigarette.TigaThreebijiCL:small grainspasir.sand.Tiga biji pasir.Three {CL:small grains} sand.Three grains of sand.Vietnamese uses a similar set of classifiers to Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
"In American Sign Language classifier constructions are used to express position, stative description (size and shape), and how objects are handled manually.
[26] Examples: Classifiers are part of the grammar of most East Asian languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Malay, Burmese, Thai, Hmong, and the Bengali and Munda languages just to the west of the East and Southeast Asia linguistic area.
The main concentration of numeral classifiers is in a single zone centered in East and Southeast Asia, but reaching out both westwards and eastwards.
However, numeral classifiers pick up again, albeit in optional usage, in parts of western Asia centering on Iran and Turkey; it is not clear whether this should be considered as a continuation of the same large though interrupted isogloss, or as a separate one.
To the east, numeral classifiers extend out through the Indonesian archipelago, and then into the Pacific in a grand arc through Micronesia and then down to the southeast, tapering out in New Caledonia and western Polynesia.
Outside this single large zone, numeral classifiers are almost exclusively restricted to a number of smaller hotbeds, in West Africa, the Pacific Northwest, Mesoamerica, and the Amazon basin.
[27] The Egyptian hieroglyphic script is formed of a repertoire of hundreds of graphemes which play different semiotic roles.
The graphemic classifiers of the hieroglyphic script presents an emic image of knowledge organization in the Ancient Egyptian mind.