classifier

(A classifier is a term that indicates the group to which a noun belongs [for example, ‘animate object’] or designates countable objects or measurable quantities, such as ‘yards [of cloth]’ and ‘head [of cattle]’.) Such words as the forms for ‘to be’ and the classifier for…

Second, numeral classifiers are obligatory in phrases with overt numerals and in phrases where the noun is otherwise fixed in reference by the presence of a possessive pronoun or demonstrative. A classifier is a term that indicates the group to which a noun belongs, such as “animate…

The Sino-Tibetan noun is typically a collective term, designating all members of its class, like the English man used to signify “all human beings.” In a number of modern Sino-Tibetan languages, such a noun can be counted or modified by a demonstrative pronoun only…