Classifiers in East and Mainland Southeast Asian languages

While the universality of the mass vs. count distinction is a matter of debate (see e.g. Fieder et al. 2014), there are languages in which all nouns require a classifier when combined with numerals, known as ‘classifier languages’. Besides nominal terms of measure, classifier languages also make extensive use of sortal classifiers, which divide nouns into semantic classes (e.g. Cantonese bún for books, ga for vehicles, etc.). Classifier languages appear to be most concentrated in a region centered in East and Southeast Asia (Gil 2013; Her et al. 2022), which largely overlaps with the East and Mainland Southeast Asian (EMSEA) Sprachbund (Enfield 2005; Goddard 2005). In this paper, we shall provide an overview of the features and use of classifiers in this region. We shall also discuss how these languages fit into Chierchia’s (2010) three-way classification of languages according to their treatment of the mass vs. count distinction.