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Measure words, in Linguistics , are words (or Morpheme s) that are used in combination with a Numeral to indicate the count of Noun s. Measure words often classify the noun they modify into some semantic class and consequently measure words are considered ''numeral classifiers'', closely akin to Grammatical Gender . They are also known as ''counters''. Measure words are part of the grammar of many Asian languages, including Bangla (Bengali) , Chinese , Japanese , Korean , Malay , Thai , and Vietnamese . MEASURE WORDS IN ENGLISH In contrast to Asian languages and others, measure words are not grammatical in the case of most Indo-European Languages including English . English does have a distinction between Mass Noun s and Count Noun s, and employs a small number of fixed words that can be considered semantically-oriented counters. Consider the following:
Note that the preceding measure words are Singular in form. If they were Plural , the first two phrases would have different meanings. Most measure words in English are more accurately called Unit s of Measurement . They are normal count nouns, not Grammatical Particle s. A measure word is the only way to quantify a mass noun:
''A water'' or ''a corn'' (taken in the sense of ''grain'') do not make sense and are almost never heard. With count nouns, however, measure words are unnecessary. A number alone can be used as an adjective to modify the noun to be counted:
English also features some cases in which the number and the measure word are combined as a single word: for example, when counting
See also Collective Noun for a concept related to measure words that is found in English. ASIAN LANGUAGES Languages such as Ainu , Bangla (Bengali) , Chinese , Japanese , Korean , and Thai use measure words as the standard way of indicating the count of the number of items, rather than, as in most Indo-European languages, allowing numbers to count a Noun directly. Chinese See Also: Chinese measure word In Mandarin , nouns are not conjugated for singular or plural Numerus ; a noun without a classifier can be translated as either singular or plural. Classifiers are used when enumerating a Count Noun : In contrast to the above examples from English, Chinese measure words are ''obligatory'' with enumeration of ''all'' count nouns; "yī rén" in modern Chinese when used as a measure word is grammatically incorrect, though uses elsewhere, and in Classical Chinese , can be found. The choice of a classifier for each noun is a matter of grammar, is somewhat arbitrary, and must be memorized by learners of Chinese. The classifier assigned to a noun often has an imagistic association with that object. Thus, ''zhāng'' has ''table'' as one of its meanings, and is used for large and thin objects. (Though uncommon, it is even possible to omit the noun if the choice of classifier makes the intended noun obvious.) Not all classifier words derive from nouns. For example, the word ''bǎ'' can also be a verb meaning ''to grab'', and is the measure word for objects that have handles. Bangla (Bengali) Similar to Chinese, nouns in Bangla (Bengali) are not inflected for number. Although not typical for an Indo-European language, every noun in Bangla (Bengali) must have its corresponding measure word (MW) when used with a numeral or other quantifier. Most nouns take the generic measure word ''ţa'', although there are many more specific measure words, such as ''jon'', which is only used to count humans. Still, the number of measure words in Bangla (Bengali) certainly does not compare to that of Chinese or Japanese. Similar to the situation in Chinese, measuring nouns in Bangla without their corresponding measure words (e.g. ''aţ biŗal'' instead of ''aţ-ţa biŗal'' "eight cats") would typically be considered ungrammatical. However, omitting the noun and preserving the measure word is grammatical and not uncommon to hear. For example, ''Shudhu êk-'''jon''' thakbe.'' (lit. "Only one-'''MW''' will remain.") would be understood to mean "Only one '''person''' will remain.", since ''jon'' can only be used to count humans. The word ''lok'' "person" is implied. Japanese See Also: Japanese counter word In Japanese grammar, most nouns are effectively mass nouns, and measure words must be used with a number when counting them. The appropriate measure word is chosen based on the kind and shape of the noun, and combines with the numeral, sometimes adopting several different forms. This is similar to Noun Class es in many African languages, except that the classifiers are used only when counting. SEE ALSO |
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