Skip to content
LinguaCommons
← Terminology

Classifier (numeral classifier)

Intermediate

A grammatical element used in counting constructions to mark a conventional class for the noun being counted.

Also called: sortal numeral classifier.

In precise terms

This lesson uses 'classifier' in the narrow sense of a sortal numeral classifier: a form in a numeral-noun construction that groups ordinary count nouns into conventional semantic classes. Its distribution differs from mensural expressions such as units of measure and from grammatical gender, whose defining property is agreement.

An example

THREE + CL:ELONGATED-OBJECT + PENCIL (schematic)

What is going on here

The CL slot supplies the conventional counting class selected with the noun. It is not a plural suffix or gender agreement marker, and the order of numeral, classifier and noun is language-specific.

Why this matters when you are learning a language

Where a numeral classifier is required, knowing the numeral and noun is not enough to form a counting expression. Learning a noun with its common classifier patterns also helps you recognise what a short grammatical form is doing in speech.

Across languages

Sortal numeral classifiers may be absent, optional or obligatory. Choice can depend on the noun, numeral and context; a noun may permit more than one classifier with a difference in construal, and the class is not always predictable from real-world shape or animacy.

Related terms

  • NounBeginner — A word for a thing, person, place, idea or quality.
  • DeterminerBeginner — A noun-phrase item, such as an article or demonstrative, that helps anchor or quantify what the phrase refers to.
  • Grammatical genderIntermediate — A system sorting nouns into classes that other words must agree with.
  • Linguistic typologyAdvanced — Classifying languages by their structural features rather than their family history.

Where to go next