Alexandra Aikhenvald is Professor of Linguistics and Deputy Director of the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology at La Trobe University. She was a Research Fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR 1980-89, and Professor of Linguistics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, until 1994

a real treasure...highly stimulating.

• Chapter 1: Preliminaries ; Chapter 2: Noun Class and Gender Systems ; Chapter 3: Noun Classifiers ; Chapter 4: Numeral Classifiers ; Chapter 5: Classifiers in Possessive Constructions ; Chapter 6: Verbal Classifiers ; Chapter 7: Locative and Deictic Classifiers ; Chapter 8: Different Classifier Types in One Language ; Chapter 9: Multiple Classifier Languages ; Chapter 10: Classifiers and Other Grammatical Categories ; Chapter 11: Semantics of Noun Categorization Devices ; Chapter 12: Semantic Organization and Functions of Noun Categorization ; Chapter 13: Origin and Development of Noun Categorization Devices ; Chapter 14: Noun Categorization Devices in Language Acquisition and Dissolution ; Chapter 15: Conclusions ; Appendix 1: Noun Categorization by Means Other than Classifiers ; Appendix 2: From Nouns to Classifiers: Further Examples of Semantic Change ; Appendix 3: Fieldworker's Guide to Classifier Languages