[inkyoto]

Collective nouns, a common feature of Indo-European languages, are not an exact equivalent of counting words in Korean, Japanese, Chinese and other Southeast Asian languages, they are their nearest functional equivalent though.

It is not unfathomable (in fact, it is rather common) to conjure up the following conversation:

- How much milk (bread) do I have to buy?

- Two packets (two loaves), please.

In this context, packets and loaves fulfill the same role as the Korean counting words although they are multifunctional words, indeed.