Variation and Change of Classifier Usage in Written Language and Spoken Language (November 17-19, 2006)

<p>International conference centering on the question of the typology of classification systems, joint meeting of Working Groups II ( Implicit classification , F. Kammerzell) and III ( Explicit classification , G. Selz, Vienna) as well as a Core Group Meeting. The scope of languages and writing systems under investigation was enlarged thanks to the participation of scholars reporting on modern African and American as well as on ancient Mediterranean languages and German Sign Language.</p>
<p>The central issue of the meetings was the usage of different types of classifiers numeral classifiers, noun classifiers, verbal classifiers in distinctive languages and/or in diverse communicative media (spoken language versus written language and sign language). In the course of the papers and the subsequent discussions it turned out more than once that seeming difficulties in comparing systems reflected different terminologies or disciplinary traditions rather than actual properties of the respective linguistic systems. The participants agreed that one has to pay more attention to this situation, and it was suggested to have a future meeting dealing particularly with the problem of terminology.</p>
<p>As a main result can be formulated that apart from the pitfalls of incompatible terminologies classification systems of different areas and times exhibit a surprising degree of typological similarity. This holds true for spoken as well as written languages at least if the latter are treated as an autonomous system instead of dealing with script as a secondary system entirely dependent on spoken language. The so-called determinatives in Chinese, Mesopotamian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphic and similarily structured writing systems are undeniably morphological elements (since they have both form and meaning) and as such scarcely differ from those bound morphemes which certain African, American, and Australian languages exhibit as noun classifiers.</p>