Re: Nouns with arguments, verbs without arguments

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Cowan" <cowan@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2003 11:50 AM
Subject: Re: Nouns with arguments, verbs without arguments


> Roger Mills scripsit:
>
> > Looking at this, and taking Mathias' reply into account, it looks like
tlazi
> > might be considered a "classifier", as used in Indo., Chinese etc...but
we
> > have them too in Engl., just not as obligatorily.  "200 head of cattle"
etc.
>
> In short, all nouns in Chinese, etc., are mass nouns.
>
> > If used alone, "200 head" could only be used if "cattle" were already
> > presupposed in the discussion.
>
> This is partly because of an English lexical gap: we have no generally
> acceptable word for "member of _Bos taurus_", only the sex/age specific
terms
> "bull", "calf", "cow", "heifer", "steer", and "ox".
>

'cow' is being generalised, though, to mean 'a member of Bos taurus'.  If I
point to a field of mixed cattle, I usually call it 'a field of cows'.

Reply