Syntactic function n{CLASSIFIER}+N
classifier noun preceding and in construction with a nominal (indicating the quantity of the latter)
Since we have defined classifiers as grammaticalised nouns being preceded by a number phrase, when this number phrase is not present, we need to indicate the "classifier nature" of the noun in question by a semantic gloss - thus messily introducing a gloss into our syntactic description. This messiness, on the other hand, is taken to signal something structurally quite special that is going on in the constructions in question.
Usage
- Lexical entries:
- Found 4 attributions