• 作者： 卓江
• 作者服務機構： Department of Foreign Languages and Literature National Tsing Hua University Hsin-Chu, Taiwan
• 中文摘要： The paper examines four general types of nominal linking devices: gender agreement, such as that commonly found in European languages; the noun class phenomenon, typical of African and Australian languages; classifiers, such as those of East and Southeast Asian languages; and semantically null linking particles, found throughout the world's languages. I argue that these seemingly disparate devices are all expressions of one common underlying entity (Link). The superficial differences among gender, noun classes, and classifiers are due to the different language types in which they appear. Linking particles simply represent one natural instantiation of Link, that in which the number of nominal classes is at its logical minimum of one.
• 英文摘要： 本文主要檢閱了四種一般類型的名詞連接單位：在歐語中常出現的性別對應關係、非洲語及澳大利亞語典型的名詞類現象、東亞及東南亞語特有的單位詞，以及在全世界語言中皆共有的語意上無意義連接語助詞。我認為這些看似不同的單位其實皆代表了一個共同的基底實體 (連接)。這些表面上看來不同的性別對應關係、名詞類以及單位詞實際上是因為它們出現於不同的語言類型所導致。連接語助詞只是連接的一個自然實例，在這其中名詞類的數目是在邏輯最小值為一。
• 中文關鍵字： linking; classifiers; linking particles; gender; noun classes; universals
• 英文關鍵字： 連接；單位詞；連接語助詞；性別；名詞類；普遍性