拉祜语名词的类称范畴

The Generic Category of Nouns in Lahu

拉祜语名词中存在个指名词与类指名词的对立的类称范畴。这是拉祜语名词的重要特征之一。拉祜语的类指与汉语的类指不同，有其专用的语法形式，即四音格词形式。拉祜语类指名词的句法环境是属性谓语，不能与事件谓语相配，不受数量短语、指示词、单数人称代词、限定性名词的修饰，不能带全量成分。

There is a distinction of specific- versus genetic-denoting nouns in Lahu, one of the defining characteristics of the noun word class in Lahu. The generic nouns are unique in form, that is, they are tetrasyllabic. The syntactic properties of generic nouns are as follows： the generic nouns go with individual-level predicates instead of stage-level predicates; they are not modified by either quantity phrases, or demonstratives, or singular personal nouns, or def＇mite NPs; and they don＇t take whole-quantity modifiers.