Vector descriptor de ítem (VDI)

Along with Chinese, the Korean NC system also has some similarities to the Japanese system. Concerning the languages and their grammatical rules, Japanese and Korean have many things in common such as word order, use of particles, and large numbers of words derived from Chinese (Cho, 2003; Martin, 1966). Also, both languages have indigenous numerals as well as Sino-numerals. Typical Korean NCs cannot stand alone and are used with a numeral to make a numeral-NC combination, as in Japanese (Bond & Paik, 1997).20 _{Hwang, Yoon, and Kwon (2008) claim that there are four types of}

NC in Korean: mensural-CLs, sortal-CLs, generic-CLs, and event-CLs. Mensural-CLs are not qualifying, but serve only to quantify the amount of the entity, and so serve the same purpose as measure words in general (e.g., sentimiteo centimetre). Sortal-NCs, the most common type of NC in Korean, classify nouns which denote entities (e.g., myeong, which is used for human beings). Generic-NCs classify nouns denoting only inanimate entities (e.g., gae, which is a general NC). Lastly, event-NCs are used for abstract events (e.g., geon, which is used for accidents) (Hwang et al., 2008). From a semantic point of view, Unterbeck (1994, p. 370) maintains that Korean NCs are divided according to semantic criteria of animacy, shape, and function. These criteria are quite similar to NCs in other languages as mentioned previously, including Japanese (see 2.3.2 above). Japanese NCs have been characterised to be first divided into the animate and the inanimate, and under animate, they are next categorised into human and non-human beings. Then inanimate entities are classified depending on their inherent characteristics, shape, and function (Iida, 1999, p. 328; Iwasaki, 2013, p. 77).

20 _{There are also at least two more types of NC in Korean, which are quasi-classifiers and classifier} nouns. According to Hwang, Yoon, and Kwon (2008), quasi-classifiers are mostly used as classifiers but can be used as nouns as well and classifier nouns are a subset of ‘countable noun’. For example, saram (people) is usually a noun but can also function as an NC (Hwang et al., 2008).

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Korean is considered to have more than 100 NCs and interestingly, all are derived from nouns (Woo, 2001, as cited in Koo, 2008). Koo (2008) investigates this characteristic of Korean NCs and claims that, in the case of some NCs, the original nominal use has been lost and they are used purely as NCs in modern society. In other words, these NCs have been ‘grammaticalised’. In the Korean NC system, each main category (human beings, animals, plants, and inanimate entities) has a core NC, which can be replaced with other possible NCs in the group. According to Koo, this replacement can be possible because these core NCs have lost meaning, so they do not have any semantic restrictions that apply (Koo, 2008). Regarding NCs used for human beings, they carry meaning pertaining to social status. For instance, myeong is the most frequently used NC for human beings and also neutral. On the other hand, pun has an honorific meaning and nom can carry negative meaning. Nom bears a disrespectful overtone and might be used for unsavoury types such as thieves or murderers. Therefore this NC nom itself has a negative meaning in general, however, in some cases where it is used for children, it can be regarded as a joke (Unterbeck, 1994, p. 370). This usage of making a joke by selecting a particular NC for the human referent is found in Japanese as well. In Japanese, hiki can be applied to a human referent in a teasing or joking way (see 4.4.2.1.2). Indicating social status by choice of NC can be observed in other NC languages such as Burmese and Thai. These two languages utilise five different NCs to express social hierarchy (Becker, 1975; Haas, 1942).21 _On

the other hand, Japanese does not have a variety of NCs for human beings, unlike Korean, Burmese, and Thai. In Japanese, social status is generally marked within a verb phrase instead. By changing the verb phrase, different levels of respect and

21 _{Burmese employs five NCs for (1) Buddhas and their pagodas, relics, images and words, (2) spirits,} clergy, royalty, (3) people of status, (4) ordinary people, and (5) defective people, children, animals, ghosts, corpuses (Becker, 1975). Thai also employs five NCs for (1) royals, dukes and duchesses, (2) Buddhist monks and priests, (3) nobles and high-rank officials in the army and navy, (4) people who are slightly higher than common people, and (5) ordinary people (Haas, 1942).

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nuance pertaining to social hierarchy can be expressed (Denny, 1979). Also in Japanese, regarding possible NCs used for human beings other than the standard NC nin, there is an NC mei used for human beings honorifically, but while it can express the speaker’s respect towards the referent person in context, it does not necessarily convey information regarding social status. In order to degrade a human referent on the other hand, one might simply select an atypical NC. For example, hiki can be used for human beings when the speaker has a negative feeling towards the referent (see 4.4.2.1.1 for this usage).

This section has overviewed general features of NC systems, as well as some particular examples from a number of NC languages. By comparing Japanese with these NC languages, especially Chinese and Korean, similarities and differences between them have also been revealed. The following section puts the focus particularly on Japanese NCs in order to determine their characteristics, and compare them to findings from previous studies.