This book offers a multifaceted, cross-linguistic survey of all types of grammatical devices used to categorize nouns. It represents an ambitious expansion beyond earlier studies dealing with individual aspects of this phenomenon, notably Corbett's (I99I) landmark monograph on noun classes (genders), Dixon's important essay (I982) distinguishing noun classes from classifiers, and Greenberg's (I972) seminal paper on numeral classifiers. Aikhenvald's Classifiers exceeds them all in the number of languages it examines and in its breadth of typological inquiry. The book is intended to inspire and guide more linguists into conducting fieldwork on undescribed or under-described languages by providing 'a framework within which fieldworkers and typologists will be able to work, and which can be amended and adjusted as new data and new insights emerge.