On the Issue of Optional Classifiers. A Look at Romanian, Russian, and Hungarian

The paper addresses the issue of sortal ‘unit’ classifiers that optionally combine with count and mass nouns in a structure of the type numeral + classifier + noun in non-classifier languages. The issue of optional unit classifiers remains relatively under-studied even in those languages where they have been identified, such as Russian and Hungarian. No such enterprise has been undertaken with respect to Romanian, and therefore the paper is an attempt at filling the gap in the literature on optional vs. mandatory unit classifiers. After amassing and investigating the data, the paper proposes that optional unit classifiers in Romanian are merged in a single extended projection where the Number Phrase can be syntactically active or inert. When the classifier is silent, the Number Phrase is syntactically active thus enabling the noun to interact with the count system. On the other hand, when the classifier is overt, the Number Phrase is inert and the lexical noun is treated as mass. At the same time, the semantic reflex of merging optional unit classifiers in the structure is the emergence of a ‘plurality of individuals’ reading to the exclusion of a ‘plurality of subkinds’ reading.