Why are counters necessary to describe the quantity of objects?


Why are counters (助数詞) necessary to describe the numerical quantity of objects
in Japanese?

I'm interested in the linguistic explanation specifically, but also curious as
to how strict those who are fluent tend to be about it in colloquial
conversation.




Counters aren't necessary any more in Japanese than gendered nouns are in
romance languages, e.g. _la_ vache vs. _le_ chat.

English has something extremely similar to counters called [Collective
Nouns](http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/collnoun.htm). When you see
several fish, you call it a "school of fish". You wouldn't say a "school of
wolves", you'd say a "pack of wolves".

Are these necessary? Anyone could just say a "group of fish/wolves", but it
simply wouldn't sound right to our ears. That's the same way it works in
Japanese, to say 一枚のペン simply wouldn't sound right, even though you could
easily say 一つのペン.




Counters aren't necessary any more in Japanese than gendered nouns are in
romance languages, e.g. _la_ vache vs. _le_ chat.

English has something extremely similar to counters called [Collective
Nouns](http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/collnoun.htm). When you see
several fish, you call it a "school of fish". You wouldn't say a "school of
wolves", you'd say a "pack of wolves".

Are these necessary? Anyone could just say a "group of fish/wolves", but it
simply wouldn't sound right to our ears. That's the same way it works in
Japanese, to say 一枚のペン simply wouldn't sound right, even though you could
easily say 一つのペン.

