Findings till now in a nutshell....

Basic Assumption:

• Numeral in language either need Number morphology or Classifiers to mark countability on Nouns. Suppose languages with number morphology are called Number Language (NL) and languages with classifiers are called Classifier Language (CL)
• If Noun is a count noun then use of number morphology in NL and use of classifier (will combine with numeral or the noun) in CL.
• If Noun is a mass noun, then use of Measure words in NL and use of Massifiers in CL. They make mass nouns countable by creating a unit by which they can be counted.

Why Numerals need any of these two categories?

Since semantic denotation of the partitioning of the count nouns must be syntactically visible, Numerals require the presence of a syntactic marker. In some languages, number morphology does that, while other languages use classifiers. (Doetjes, 1996)

Count and Mass Noun Distinction:

• Count noun occur in both singular and plural form, Mass nouns do not mark number at all.
• Count nouns can be modified by a numeral, Mass nouns cannot be so modified (without a measure phrase)
• Count noun can co-occur with both articles, Mass nouns cannot co-occur with an indefinite article.
• Count nouns can co-occur with Qs like every and several, Mass nouns cannot co-occur with them.
• Count nouns cannot combine with expressions like 'too much', Mass nouns can combine with such expressions.

Apart from these differences Count and Mass noun differ in aspects like:

       - Cumulativity and Quantization

       - Semantic Partitioning of Nouns

Count nouns in CL are like mass nouns because they need a counting unit (classifier). So, Nouns in CLs generally have status analogous to mass nouns in Number Languages (NL).

Languages with [+arg, -pred] NP i.e., e-type languages, allow bare NP to appear as arguments. These bare NP arguments denote kinds, which are converted to mass properties for the purposes of quantification. Being mass, nouns in [+arg, -pred] languages resist plural morphology and require a classifier as the counting unit. (Chierchia, 1998)