This examination of numeral classifiers in standard Japanese (hyoojungo) focuses on their interaction with nouns and their referents in terms of both meaning and function. By unitizing their referents, Japanese numeral classifiers not only facilitate enumeration but also play an important discourse pragmatic role in the understanding of referentiality. While Japanese numeral classifiers have been discussed in much previous research, this chapter offers further insights into a range of issues that are of typological interest in relation to noun categorization systems. These issues include the extent to which a distinction can be made between classifiers and quantifiers in this language, as well as between classifiers whose referents are represented by nouns or verbs. The chapter also extends the understanding of the discourse pragmatic functions of Japanese numeral classifiers and opens a new area of investigation into their idiosyncratic, metaphorical uses by speakers to express their subjective attitude towards a referent.

In Japanese grammar, classifiers must be used with a number when counting nouns. The appropriate classifier is chosen based on the kind and shape of the A classifier (abbreviated clf or cl) is a word or affix that accompanies nouns and can be considered to "classify" a noun depending on some characteristics (e.g. humanness, animacy, sex, shape, social status) of its referent. Classifiers in this sense are specifically called noun classifiers because some languages in Papua as well as the Americas have verbal classifiers which categorize the refere A classifier (abbreviated clf or cl) is a word or affix that accompanies nouns and can be considered to "classify" a noun depending on some characteristics (e.g. humanness, animacy, sex, shape, social status) of its referent. Classifiers in this sense are specifically called noun classifiers because some languages in Papua as well as the Americas have verbal classifiers which categorize the referent of its argument. In languages that have classifiers, they are often used when the noun is being counted, that is, when it appears with a numeral. In such languages, a phrase such as "three people" is often required to be expressed as "three X (of) people", where X is a classifier appropriate to the noun for "people"; compare to "three blades of grass". Classifiers that appear next to a numeral or a quantifier are particularly called numeral classifiers. They play an important role in certain languages, especially East and Southeast Asian languages, including Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese. Numeral classifiers may have other functions too; in Chinese, they are commonly used when a noun is preceded by a demonstrative (word meaning "this" or "that"). Some Asian languages like Zhuang, Hmong and Cantonese use "bare classifier construction" where a classifier is attached without numerals to a noun for definite reference; the latter two languages also extend numeral classifiers to the possessive classifier construction where they behave as a possessive marker connecting a noun to another noun that denotes the possessor. Possessive classifiers are usually used in accord with semantic characteristics of the possessed noun and less commonly with the relation between the possessed and the possessor although possessor classifiers are reported in a few languages (e.g. Dâw). Classifiers are absent or marginal in European languages. An example of a possible classifier in English is piece in phrases like "three pieces of paper". In American Sign Language, particular classifier handshapes represent a noun's orientation in space. There are similarities between classifier systems and noun classes, although there are also significant differences. While noun classes are…