Accounting for counting: A unified semantics for measure terms and classifiers

Abstract

This paper develops and extends the semantic account of morphological number marking in the presence of numerals from Scontras (2013). The account handles variation in patterns of number marking along two dimensions: cross-linguistically, between languages that either necessitate or prohibit singular morphology in the presence of numerals greater than ‘one’, and within one and the same language: English. The proposed semantics accounts for both sorts of variation by assuming flexibility in the selection of the measure relevant to the one-ness presupposition of the morphological singular form. The system also provides an explanation for the Slobin-Greenberg-Sanches Generalization, which states that no classifier language has obligatory number marking: by aligning the semantics of counting in both number marking and classifier languages, and by assuming that nouns in classifier languages denote kinds, the semantic contribution of number marking is necessarily redundant in classifier languages. A system of obligatory number marking only surfaces in languages where it delivers otherwise unrecoverable information about the number of intended referents.