Classifier Structures In Mandarin Chinese

This monograph addresses fundamental syntactic issues of classifier constructions, based on a thorough study of a typical classifier language, Mandarin Chinese. It shows that the contrast between count and mass is not binary. Instead, there are two independently attested features: Numerability, the ability of a noun to combine with a numeral directly, and Delimitability, the ability of a noun to be modified by a delimitive modifier, such as size, shape, or boundary modifier. Although all nouns in Chinese are non-count nouns, there is still a mass/non-mass contrast, with mass nouns selected by individuating classifiers and non-mass nouns selected by individual classifiers. Some languages have the counterparts of Chinese individuating classifiers only, some languages have the counterparts of Chinese individual classifiers only, and some other languages have no counterpart of either individual or individuating classifiers of Chinese. The book also reports that unit plurality can be expressed by reduplicative classifiers in the language. Moreover, for the constituency of a numeral expression, an individual, individuating, or kind classifier combines with the noun first and then the numeral is integrated; but a partitive or collective classifier, like a measure word, combines with the numeral first, before the noun is integrated into the whole nominal structure. Furthermore, the book identifies the syntactic positions of various uses of classifiers in the language. A classifier is at a functional head position that has a dependency with a numeral, or a position that has a dependency with a generic or existential quantifier, or a position that represents the singular-plural contrast, or a position that licenses a delimitive modifier when the classifier occurs in a compound.

This book studies the syntax and semantics of numeral classifiers in Mandarin and other Chinese languages. It explores how Chinese classifiers are semantically interpreted in syntactic contexts and how semantic functions of classifiers are realized at the syntactic level. The book is a contribution to formal Chinese linguistics, and to the understanding of grammatical properties of nominal phrases in Chinese and East Asian languages.

Partition and Quantity: Numeral Classifiers, Measurement, and Partitive Constructions in Mandarin Chinese presents an in-depth investigation into the semantic and syntactic properties of Chinese classifiers and conducts a comprehensive examination on the use of different quantity constructions in Chinese. This book echoes a rapid development in the past decades in Chinese linguistics research within the generative framework on Chinese classifier phrases, an area that has emerged as one of the most cutting-edge themes in the field of Chinese linguistics. The book on the one hand offers a closer scrutiny on empirical data and revisits some long-lasting research problems, such as the semantic factor bearing on the formation of Chinese numeral classifier constructions, the (non-)licensing of the linker de (的) in between the numeral classifier and the noun, and the conditions regulating the use of pre-classifier adjectives. On the other hand, particular attention is paid to the issues that have been less studied or gone unnoticed in previous studies, including a (more) fine-grained subcategorization of Chinese measurement constructions, the multiple grammatical roles played by the marker de (的) in different numeral classifier constructions, the formation and derivation of Chinese partitive constructions, etc.

Partition and Quantity: Numeral Classifiers, Measurement, and Partitive Constructions in Mandarin Chinese presents an in-depth investigation into the semantic and syntactic properties of Chinese classifiers and conducts a comprehensive examination on the use of different quantity constructions in Chinese. This book echoes a rapid development in the past decades in Chinese linguistics research within the generative framework on Chinese classifier phrases, an area that has emerged as one of the most cutting-edge themes in the field of Chinese linguistics. The book on the one hand offers a closer scrutiny on empirical data and revisits some long-lasting research problems, such as the semantic factor bearing on the formation of Chinese numeral classifier constructions, the (non-)licensing of the linker de (的) in between the numeral classifier and the noun, and the conditions regulating the use of pre-classifier adjectives. On the other hand, particular attention is paid to the issues that have been less studied or gone unnoticed in previous studies, including a (more) fine-grained subcategorization of Chinese measurement constructions, the multiple grammatical roles played by the marker de (的) in different numeral classifier constructions, the formation and derivation of Chinese partitive constructions, etc.

The Semantics of Chinese Classifiers and Linguistic Relativity focuses on the semantic structure of Chinese classifiers under the cognitive linguistics framework, and the implications thereof on linguistic relativity and language acquisition. It examines the semantic correlation between a given classifier and its associated nouns. Nouns in Chinese, which are assigned specific classifiers according to their selected characteristics, reflect the process of human categorization. The concrete categories formed by the relationship between nouns and classifiers may serve to explain the conceptual structure of the Chinese language and certain underlying aspects of culture and human cognition. Song Jiang is Assistant Professor of Chinese for the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at university of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.

This monograph describes and analyzes the syntax of classifiers and cultural taxonomy in more than 20 major languages in southern China and Southeast Asia. It provides comprehensive and in-depth data for professional linguists and rudimental knowledge for postgraduate or undergraduate majors or minors engaged in linguistics. Readers will learn how nouns are categorized in syntax and what cultural factors are involved in such a classification process. This is the first book on Kam-Tai classifiers from both syntactic and sociocultural aspects.

Master's Thesis from the year 2015 in the subject Orientalism / Sinology - Chinese / China, Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV) (UFR Langue française), language: English, abstract: In this paper, we will present an analysis of the phenomenon of the ellipsis of head noun in attributive structure, known as elliptical noun phrase (NP) in Chinese, on a semantic and syntactic level. Simply speaking, elliptical NPs in Chinese are expressions which have the distribution of NP but lack an overt noun and are made up of one or several modifiers, such as pronouns, demonstratives, adjectives, numerals and classifiers. This type of construction is found in many languages. We can observe that the semantic relations between the attributive and the head noun vary from one to another. In Part 1, we will introduce the attributive structure in Chinese and present a description of the semantic relations between attributive and head noun. The elliptical element in NPs in Chinese is always placed after “de”. Therefore, the function of de plays an extremely important role in the ellipsis phenomenon in Chinese NPs. There are some controversial discussions on the function of de: ZHU Dexi believes that the nature of the construction of ‘X de’, according to the syntactic function, can be analyzed as adverbial phrase, adjective phrase and nominal phrase. Therefore de in this construction can be accordingly regarded as de1, an adjunct to adverbial phrase; as de2, an adjunct to adjective phrase; as de3, an adjunct to nominal phrase. However, HE Yuanjian considers that de can be possessive particle as well as structural particle depending on the context, which is obviously different from the opinion of ZHU Dexi.