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A classifier, sometimes called a counter word, is a word or affix that is used to accompany nouns and can be considered to "classify" the noun depending on the type of its referent. Classifiers play an important role in the grammar of certain languages, especially East Asian languages, including Chinese and Japanese. In European languages classifiers are absent or marginal; an example of a word that may be considered to have the function of a classifier in English is ''head'' in phrases like "five head of cattle". In languages that have classifiers, they are often used when the noun is being counted, that is, when it appears with a numeral. In such languages, a phrase such as "three people" is often required to be expressed as "three ''X'' people", where ''X'' is a classifier appropriate to the noun for "people". Classifiers sometimes have other functions too; in Chinese they are commonly used when a noun is preceded by a demonstrative (word meaning "this" or "that"). Chinese classifiers are also commonly called measure words, although some writers make a distinction between the two terms. Classifier handshapes appear in some sign languages; these may have a somewhat different grammatical function. Certain parallels can be drawn between classifier systems and noun classes, although there are significant differences. Languages with classifiers may have up to several hundred different classifiers, whereas those with noun classes (or in particular, genders) tend to have a smaller number of classes, not always much dependent on the nouns' meaning, and with a variety of grammatical consequences. ==Overview== A classifier is a word (or in some analyses, a bound morpheme) which accompanies a noun in certain grammatical contexts, and generally reflects some kind of conceptual classification of nouns, based principally on features of their referents. Thus a language might have one classifier for nouns representing persons, another for nouns representing flat objects, another for nouns denoting periods of time, and so on. The assignment of classifier to noun may also be to some degree unpredictable, with certain nouns taking certain classifiers by historically established convention. The situations in which classifiers may or must appear depend on the grammar of the language in question, but they are frequently required when a noun is accompanied by a numeral. They are therefore sometimes known (particularly in the context of languages such as Japanese) as counter words. They may also be used when a noun is accompanied by a demonstrative (a word such as "this" or "that"). The following examples, from Standard Mandarin Chinese, illustrate the use of classifiers with a numeral. The classifiers used here are 个 (traditional form 個, pinyin ''gè''), used (among other things) with nouns for humans; 棵 ''kē'', used with nouns for trees; 只 (隻) ''zhī'', used with nouns for certain animals, including birds; and 条 (條) ''tiáo'', used with nouns for certain long flexible objects. (Plurals of Chinese nouns are not normally marked in any way; the same form of the noun is used for both singular and plural.) *"three students": 三个学生 (三個學生) ''sān gè xuéshēng'', literally "three () student" *"three trees": 三棵树 (三棵樹) ''sān kē shù'', literally "three () tree" *"three birds": 三只鸟 (三隻鳥) ''sān zhī niǎo'', literally "three () bird" *"three rivers": 三条河 (三條河) ''sān tiáo hé'', literally "three () river" In fact the first of these classifiers, 个 (個) ''gè'', is also often used in informal speech as a general classifier, with almost any noun, taking the place of more specific classifiers. The noun in such phrases may be omitted, if the classifier alone (and the context) is sufficient to indicate what noun is intended. For example, in answering a question: :Q. "How many rivers?": 多少条河 (多少條河) ''duōshǎo tiáo hé'', literally "how many () river" :A. "Three.": 三条 (三條) ''sān tiáo'', literally "three ()", following noun omitted Languages which make systematic use of classifiers include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Southeast Asian languages, Persian, Austronesian languages, Mayan languages and others. The use of classifiers in some of these languages is described in the sections below and in the main articles mentioned. A less typical example of classifiers is explained at Southern Athabaskan grammar: Classificatory verbs. Classifier handshapes are found in sign languages, although these have a somewhat different grammatical function from that of the classifiers discussed here (see the American Sign Language section, below). Classifiers are often derived from nouns (or occasionally other parts of speech), which have become specialized as classifiers, or may retain other uses besides their use as classifiers. Classifiers, like other words, are sometimes borrowed from other languages. A language may be said to have dozens or even hundreds of different classifiers. However, such enumerations often also include measure words. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Classifier (linguistics)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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