Generic nouns, classifiers, genders and noun classes

TL;DRAbstract

Each language has, within the semantic structure of its lexicon, a number of generic–specific relationships. Thus, in English, animal is a superordinate term with many hyponyms, including pig and possum. One might hear What animal is that? Oh, it's a pig or A pig is the one sort of animal I can't abide. However, this generic–specific relationship is entirely within the lexicon; it is not, in English, exploited within the syntax of the language. That is, one would not say *I saw an animal pig, where the generic and specific lexemes occur in syntagmatic association, nor *I shot a pig, which animal had been rooting around in the vegetable garden, where the generic term acts as an anaphoric replacement for the specific item.

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