Transcript Contrastive study of English and Chinese Measure words

ch4. Classifiers &
Measure Words
授課老師：蘇以文
I-wen Su
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The “Work” under the Creative Commons
Taiwan 3.0 License of “BY-NC-SA”.
What is a classifier?
A word or morpheme to classify
the referent of a countable noun according to
its meaning.
 often used when the noun is being counted or
specified

Not every language has classifiers

Classifiers are not used in English
Languages with noun classifiers
Chinese
 Persian
 Japanese
 Korean
 Southeast Asian languages
 Austronesian languages
 Mayan languages

Classifiers in Chinese
“A measure is a bound morpheme which forms
a D-M compound with one of the
determinatives” (Y.R. Chao)
 Used along with numbers to define the quantity
of a given object
 Always used in conjunction with a noun or
another content words

棵
一___樹
yi ___
ke shu
件
一___衣服
yi jian
___ yi fu
Wiki Incal
隻
一___貓
yi ___
zhi mao
Wiki user Prskavka
Predictable?
具 電話 yi ____
ju dian hua
一 ____
Wiki user Shizhao
一 ____
台 電話 yi ____
tai dian hua
Wiki Wilfredo R. Rodriguez H.
一 ____
支 電話 yi ____
zhi dian hua
Wiki user Ikescs
Rules to follow?

Different classifiers for different nouns
一張枱 (yi zhang yi)
 一枝筆 (yi zhi bi)
 一塊麵包 (yi kuai mian bao)


no general rules to follow



一年 (yi nian)
一個月 (yi ge yue)
一(個)星期 (yi (ge) xing qi)
Difficult for non-native speakers

一個人, 說(一)句話
(yi ge ren, shuo (yi) ju hua)
 *一人, *說一話
(*yi ren, *shuo yi hua)
 Each
noun has its own specific classifier
 Indicating shape, kind, or other properties
One for All?
Extensive use of GE (個)
 Applicable to most individual nouns

 一個人(yi
ge ren), 一個雞蛋 (yi ge jidan)
 ?? 那個手袋(na ge shoudai), 這個書 (zhe ge shu),
一個鞋 (yi ge xie)
Easy to use
 Risk of over-generalization

一頭牛
vs. 一條牛
yi tou niu vs. yi tiao niu
Flickr Meneer Zjeroen
Flickr JelleS
一台/架鋼琴 yi tai/jia gang qin
Flickr t.spang
一間/座房子 yi jian/zuo fang zi
Flickr james.thompson
Flickr ToShU
一把 yi ba
Flickr pellaea
Flickr epSos.de
Flickr Bohman
Flickr David Davies
一張
yi zhang
Wiki user CharlieHuang
Wiki user Ellywa
Flickr osde8info
Flickr epSos.de
Classifiers are meaningful
一道門 (yi dao men) a doorway
 一扇門 (yi shan men) a doorway, a door

Flickr David Paul Ohmer
(physical object)

A classifier categorizes a class of nouns by
picking out some salient perceptual properties,
either physically or functionally based
Categories of Classification
Cross-linguistically (Allan 1977)
1. Material
2. Shape
3. Consistency
4. Size

Location
measure words
Arrangement
 quanta

Chinese classifier systems

Material
 (in)Animacy;

abstract; verbal nouns
Shape
 long;
flat; round or
 One-dimensional; two-dimensional; three-dimentional

Consistency
 flexible; hard/rigid;

Size
 Big
and small
non-discrete
Arbitrary classifier-noun pairings
Pi 匹
 Team of 2 horses
 A pair of horse skeletons
 The pairing between man and horse
 “fossilization”

Variation in use

Metaphorical effect
 一線希望
(yi xian xi wang)
 一臉無奈 (yi lian wu nai)

English



A galaxy of talents
An army of workmen
A pile of worries/troubles
朵
一___雲
yi duo
___ yun
Flickr supertin
面
一___鏡子
yi mian
___ jing zi
Flickr Sam Howzit
頂
一___帽子
yi ding
___ mao zi
Flickr HeatherHeatherHeather
Classifiers for categorization
A classifier categorizes a class of nouns by
picking out some salient perceptual properties,
either physically or functionally based, which
are permanently associated with entities named
by the class of nouns
 A measure word does not categorize but
denotes the quantity of the entity named by a
noun

Classifiers may affect the meaning
of a noun
San jie ke (三節課)
 San men ke (三門課)
 San zhong ke (三種課)

Relevant cognitive categories
Animacy: zhi (隻), ke (棵), gen(根)
 Shape

 Long:
tiao (條), gen (根), zhi (枝)
 Flat: zhang (張)
 Round: li (粒)
Size: li (粒), zuo (座)
 Consistency: kuai (塊) vs. tuan (團)
 Attributes: ba (把) vs. kou (口)

 Imagination
plays a critical role in
categorization >> metaphor & metonomy
副
一___麻將
yi ___
fu ma jiang
Wiki user Oscarcwk
Classifiers vs. Measure words
Classifiers vary considerably across Chinese
dialects
 Measure words do not vary much from one
dialect to another

一系列新裝
yi xi lie xin zhuang
一組學生
yi zu xue sheng
一幫人
yi bang ren
一路軍隊
yi lu jun dui
一群雀鳥
yi qun que niao
一隊士兵
yi dui shi bing
一套衣服
yi tao yi fu
一批成衣
yi pi cheng yi
Chao (1968): A group measure is used for a group
or collection of individuals
一組學生
yi zu xue sheng
兩組學生
liang zu xue sheng
A group of students
Two groups of students
一組學生
組
A group
group of students
兩組學生
組
Two groups of students
組 zu
group
Chinese and English measure words
are always one-to-one?
N O!
Significant differences: contrastive
English “group measure words” are more
specific
exclusive
selective
For example … …
工人
gong ren
雀鳥
que niao
才子
一群
cai zi
魚
yi qun
yu
蜜蜂
mi fong
歡迎者
huan ying zhe
An army of workmen
A flock of birds
A galaxy of talents
A school of fish
A swarm of bees
A troop of welcomers
army
flock
一群
yi qun
galaxy
school
swarm
troop
“群”can be applied to all animals in Chinese
but …
expressed in numerous ways for English!!
English “group measure words”
• possess visualization effect
• are represented with cultural imagination
For example … …
工人
gong ren
雀鳥
que niao
一群
yi qun
An army of workmen
A flock of birds
才子cai zi
A galaxy of talents
魚
yu
蜜蜂
mi fong
歡迎者
huan ying zhe
A school of fish
A swarm of bees
A galaxy of talents
A galaxy of talents

Galaxy
 luminous tract with numerous stars
extended to …
 An assembly of brilliant, glamorous, or
distinguished persons
who are also like blinking stars
“Group measure” for insects
“Group measure” for birds
A hive of
A bevy of
A cloud of
A case of
An army of
An host of
“Group measure” for wild animals
A tribe of
A kennel of
A collection of
A herd of
However, …
glasses
一 副 眼鏡
yi fu yan jing
trousers
A pair of
一 條 褲子
yi tiao ku zi
gloves
一 對 手套
yi duei shou tao
Violates the specific property of English “group measure words”?
English  more imaginative for animal groups (group property)
but not for static object, which has to be descriptive
and logical enough. (e.g. pair – purely mathematical)
Again, cultural/language convention!
一塊木頭
yi kuai mu tou
一支樂曲
yi zhi yue qu
一篇散文
yi pian san wen
一番好意
yi fan hao yi
一片麵包
yi pian mian bao
一則勸告
yi ze quan gao
wood
music
prose
A piece of
kindness
bread
advice
Some observations:
Different measure scales
Chinese
(1) 畝 mu
English
1/6 acre
(2)
里 li
1/3 miles
(3)
丈 zhang
10 feet
Chinese measure words from English via
transliteration
(1)
(2)
Chinese
噸 dun
加侖 jia lun
English
ton
gallon
Contextual effect of Chinese classifiers
Mandarin
 三塊 (san kuai)
 standard
measure associated with money
 一塊麵包
 partitive
(yi kuai mian bao)
measure modifying a noun
Chao (1968): A partitive measure represents portion of a
thing instead of a group of it.
However, it is just a matter of point of view!
General observation
The same morpheme sometimes serves as
different kinds of measures (Chao)
•
•
•
•
一口飯 (yi kou fan)
a partitive measure
一口鐘 (yi kou zhong)
a classifier
Omission of measure words or classifiers?
English:
(1) A can of coke → a coke
(2) A jar of beer → a beer
Chinese:
一個光年 (yi ge guangnian) →一光年 (yi guangnian)
More Precise???
PPT adapted from
Chiu Man Hin
Kwan Yin Lai, Sherleen
Leung Chau Pui, Allison
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Chao, Yuen Ren. 1968. A Grammar of Spoken Chinese.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: Unversity of California Press.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Allan, K. 1977. Classifiers. Language 53: 281-311
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW
Chiu Man Hin. Kwan Yin Lai, Sherleen. Leung Chau Pui,
Allison. 2003.
Contrastive study of English and Chinese Measure words.
and used subject to the fair use doctrine of the Taiwan
Copyright Act Article 50 by NTU OCW