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Linguistic Diversity and its Sources

Themes and actions

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Editor : Nina DOBRUSHINA, Brigitte PAKENDORF, Maïa PONSONNET

Nominal classification, why and how?


  Contact person
Marc TANG

Scientific framework and objectives

Categorization is one the most relevant tasks realized by humans during their life, as we consistently need to categorize the things and experience that we encounter (Lakoff and Johnson 2003; Kemmerer 2014,2017a,b). Such need is reflected in language via various mechanisms, the most prominent being nominal classification systems, among which two types are the most common. On the one hand, languages may use grammatical gender (Corbett 1991), as it is the case for the masculine/feminine distinction in French. On the other hand, nominal classification may be reflected in language by classifiers (Aikhenvald 2000; Grinevald 2015), which may distinguish referents according to shapes, as it is the case for Mandarin (e.g., : yi4 ke1 ping2guo3 (one clf.round apple) ‘an apple’). This project aims at investigating the cognitive and pragmatic foundations of nominal classification systems and the factors influencing their evolution by using qualitative and quantitative methods.


  Publications
  • Basirat, A., Tang, M., 2019, "Linguistic information in word embeddings", in Agents and artificial intelligence, van den Herik, J., Rocha, A. (eds), Cham, Springer, pp. 492-513
  • Her, O.S., Tang, M., Li, B.T., 2019, "Word order of numeral classifiers and numeral bases: Harmonization by multiplication", Language Typology and Universals, 72:3, pp. 421-452
  • Her, O.S., Tang, M., 2020, "A statistical explanation of the distribution of sortal classifiers in languages of the world via computational classifiers", Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 27:2, pp. 93-113
  • Tang, M., Kilarski, M., 2020, "Functions of gender and numeral classifiers in Nepali", Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, 56:1, pp. 113-168
  • Tang, M., Her, O.S., 2020, "Numeral base, numeral classifier, and noun: Word order harmonization", Language and Linguistics, 21:4, pp. 511-556
  • Tang, M., Dunn, M., 2020, "The evolutionary trends of grammatical gender in Indo-Aryan languages", Language Dynamics and Change, 11:2, pp. 211-240

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