Abstract We examine the complex nominal classification system in Nepali (Indo-European, Indic), a language spoken at the intersection of the Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan language families, which are usually associated with prototypical examples of grammatical gender and numeral classifiers, respectively. In a typologically rare pattern, Nepali possesses two gender systems based on the human/non-human and masculine/feminine oppositions, in addition to which it has also developed an inventory of at least ten numeral classifiers as a result of contact with neighbouring Sino-Tibetan languages. Based on an analysis of the lexical and discourse functions of the three systems, we show that their functional contribution involves a largely complementary distribution of workload with respect to individual functions as well as the type of categorized nouns and referents. The study thus contributes to the ongoing discussions concerning the typology and functions of nominal classification as well as the effects of long-term language contact on language structure.

中文翻译：

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尼泊尔语中性别和数字分类器的功能

摘要我们研究了尼泊尔语（印度语-欧洲语，印度语）的复杂名词分类系统，该语言是在印度语-欧洲语和汉藏语族之间的交集所使用的一种语言，通常与语法性别和数字分类器的原型示例相关联，分别。在类型学上罕见的模式中，尼泊尔拥有两种基于人类/非人类和男性/女性对立的性别系统，此外，由于与邻国汉诺威人的接触，尼泊尔还建立了至少十个数字分类器的清单。藏语。根据对这三个系统的词汇和话语功能的分析，我们表明，它们的功能贡献涉及工作量在很大程度上与各个功能的互补分布以及名词和指称物的类型。因此，该研究有助于正在进行的有关名词分类的类型和功能以及长期语言接触对语言结构的影响的讨论。