Classifiers make a difference: Kind interpretation and plurality in Hungarian

This paper provides an analysis of Hungarian sortal classifiers, shedding light on the complex interplay between classifiers, plurality and kind interpretation in the language. We build on Schvarcz & Rothstein's (2017) approach to the mass/count distinction, providing further evidence for noun flexibility. We show that Num+N and Num+CL+N constructions have different interpretations; in particular, kind interpretation tells the two apart. We provide evidence against plural-as-a-classifier (Dékány 2011) and number-neutrality (Erbach et al. 2019) views and argue that classifier optionality can be accounted for by the predictions the Nominal Mapping Parameter (Chierchia 1998b) makes with respect to bare singular nouns. We claim that Hungarian nominals are born as kind-denoting expressions which then can undergo a kind-to-predicate shift explicitly triggered by a sortal individuating classifier. We analyze classifiers in Hungarian as functional operators on kinds of type (k, (e, t)), which apply to kind denoting terms generating instantiations of that kind.