Almost all languages have some grammatical means for categorizing nouns. This book provides a comprehensive and original analysis of noun categorization devices all over the world. It will interest typologists, those working in the fields of morphosyntactic variation and lexical semantics, as well as anthropologists and all other scholars interested in the mechanisms of human cognition.

• Chapter 1: Preliminaries


• Chapter 2: Noun Class and Gender Systems


• Chapter 3: Noun Classifiers


• Chapter 4: Numeral Classifiers


• Chapter 5: Classifiers in Possessive Constructions


• Chapter 6: Verbal Classifiers


• Chapter 7: Locative and Deictic Classifiers


• Chapter 8: Different Classifier Types in One Language


• Chapter 9: Multiple Classifier Languages


• Chapter 10: Classifiers and Other Grammatical Categories


• Chapter 11: Semantics of Noun Categorization Devices


• Chapter 12: Semantic Organization and Functions of Noun Categorization


• Chapter 13: Origin and Development of Noun Categorization Devices


• Chapter 14: Noun Categorization Devices in Language Acquisition and Dissolution


• Chapter 15: Conclusions


• Appendix 1: Noun Categorization by Means Other than Classifiers


• Appendix 2: From Nouns to Classifiers: Further Examples of Semantic Change


• Appendix 3: Fieldworker's Guide to Classifier Languages

Alexandra Aikhenvald is Professor of Linguistics and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University. She was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 1980-89, and Professor of Linguistics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, until 1994