Conference proceeding
Malay numeral classifiers: sketching conceptual representation from a native speaker's perspective
SEALS XVI: papers from the 16th annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics, pp.65-74
16th Annual Meeting of theSouth East Asian Linguistics Society XVI (SEALS XVI) (Atma Jaya University, Jakarta, Indonesia., 20/09/2006 - 21/09/2006)
2008
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Abstract
Numeral classifiers are defined as a syntactic-semantic category denoting “some salient perceived or imputed characteristic” of a particular count noun (Allan 1977: 298). Similar to36 other East and Southeast Asian languages, Malay has a rich numeral classifier system(Adams & Conklin 1973). Numeral classifiers in Malay syntactically exist in a noun phrase together with a numeral preceding it and an obligatory noun following it. Malay numeral classifiers are semantically significant as they provide information about the physical and functional properties of count nouns to the speakers within the Malay speech community. The semantic criteria for dividing the system of each classifier category appears to be complex and opaque, with mixed semantic criteria involved in classifying members of a given category. Though the motivation may be obvious in cases like “dua orang kanak-kanak”, “dua ekor kucing” and “dua batang pokok”, (literally in English ‘two human children’, ‘two tail cats’, and ‘two stem
trees’ respectively), the motivation seems somewhat arbitrary in cases like “dua buah kereta”, “dua patah perkataan” and “dua bentuk cincin”(literally ‘two fruit cars’, ‘two
broken words’ and ‘two shape rings’ respectively). Other than the classifiers for human, animals and trees – which are rather straight forward in their usage – the acquisition of the other Malay classifiers seems to involve a lot of memorisation in determining which classifier should co-occur with a particular noun; as there seem to be many exceptions or non-prototypical examples which need to be learnt, for example, “biji” (the classifier that literally means ‘seed’ for all types of fruits, eggs, some household items)and “kaki” (the classifier that literally means ‘leg’ for umbrellas and some kinds of plants)(Asmah Haji Omar & Rama Subbiah, 1995: 23). Despite sharing some universal characteristics with other classifier languages such as Thai, Japanese and Korean (Carpenter,1991; Uchida & Imai, 1999; and Yamamoto & Keil, 2000), the subcategorization of the Malay classifiers has characteristics that are specific to Malay. This paper aims to illustrate the conceptual system of Malay classifiers from a native speaker’s perspective and discuss its classification vis-à-vis Allan’s (1977) description of other classifier languages of the world.
Details
- Title
- Malay numeral classifiers: sketching conceptual representation from a native speaker's perspective
- Creators
- Khazriyati Salehuddin - University of Western SydneyHeather Winskel - University of Western Sydney
- Contributors
- Paul Sidwell (Editor)Uri Tadmor (Editor)
- Publication Details
- SEALS XVI: papers from the 16th annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics, pp.65-74
- Conference
- 16th Annual Meeting of theSouth East Asian Linguistics Society XVI (SEALS XVI) (Atma Jaya University, Jakarta, Indonesia., 20/09/2006 - 21/09/2006)
- Publisher
- Pacific Linguistics
- Number of pages
- 65-74
- Identifiers
- 2050; 991012820916202368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Health; Human Sciences; School of Health and Human Sciences
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Conference proceeding