Re: Counters

Muke Tever wrote:
> Also, the _kate_ mayn't necessarily refer to an exact amount.  Frex if you
> go into an English-speaking restaurant and ask for "a water" you simply
> get a convenient amount of water (convenient for them, anyway) and there's
> no reason a language of count nouns couldnt have a lexeme that acted
> similarly.
Well, that's similar to my suggestion.  I didn't mean that it had to be
an exact amount, simply culturally defined.  The culture might give it
an exact amount, or it might be vaguer.  Or, indeed, there might be two
ways, as how in English, "glass of water" is usually a vague amount, but
is also defined (in America, at least) as "8 ounces of water", as in the
recommendation to drink 8 glasses of water a day.

Perhaps there might even be several words for differing amounts.  So,
one word would be roughly "glass of water", another word might refer to
a bucket of water, as one might fetch from a well.  Yet another word
might refer to a bathtub full of water, and so forth.  That is,
differing terms for "a convenient amount of water", simply convenient
for different uses.

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42