Nominal Classification

A history of its study from the classical period to the present

Marcin Kilarski | Adam Mickiewicz University

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027246127 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027270900 | EUR 110.00 | USD 165.00

This book offers the first comprehensive survey of the study of gender and classifiers throughout the history of Western linguistics. Based on an analysis of over 200 genetically and typologically diverse languages, the author shows that these seemingly arbitrary and redundant categories play in fact a central role in the lexicon, grammar and the organization of discourse. As a result, the often contradictory approaches to their functionality and semantic motivation encapsulate the evolving conceptions of such issues as cognitive and cultural correlates of linguistic structure, the diverse functions of grammatical categories, linguistic complexity, agreement phenomena and the interplay between lexicon and grammar. The combination of a typological and historiographic perspective adopted here allows the reader to appreciate the detail and insight of earlier, supposedly ‘prescientific’ accounts in light of the data now available and to examine contemporary discussions in the context of prevailing conceptions in the study of language at different points in its history since antiquity.

[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 121] 2013. xiv, 405 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 12 December 2013

https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.121

Table of Contents

Preface & Acknowledgments | pp. xi–xii

List of abbreviations | pp. xiii–xv

1.Preliminaries | pp. 1–6

2. Nominal classification systems: An overview | pp. 7–58

3. From Protagoras to the philosophical grammars | pp. 59–116

4. From the ‘Romantics’ to the Neogrammarians | pp. 117–158

5. Structuralism | pp. 159–198

6. Contemporary studies of gender/noun classes | pp. 199–272

7. Contemporary studies of classifiers | pp. 273–320

8. Final discussion | pp. 321–336

Index | pp. 381–??

Index of biographical names | pp. 381–390

Index of subjects and terms | pp. 391–400

Language index | pp. 401–406

“[A] comprehensive work; the extensive discussion makes good use of the 44 pages of references that cover more than 200 languages. In other words, the book lives up to its subtitle by presenting a history of studies of nominal classification since the classical period. [...] This is a text that will be required reading for anyone researching one or another aspect of nominal classification.”

Keith Allan, Monash University, in Historiographia Linguistica Vol. 41:2/3 (2014)

“[A] refreshing contribution to the field of nominal classification. Although framed as a historical work it also makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the typology of nominal classification [...]. In addition to the historical angle, what makes this book unique is its emphasis on the semantic motivations of categories and the functionality of nominal classification.”

Ruth Singer, University of Melbourne, in Studies in Language Vol 39:1 (2015)

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