Full text loading...
USD
-
Amount classifiers in Chinese and the mass/count distinction
- Source: International Journal of Chinese Linguistics, Volume 2, Issue 1, Jan 2015, p. 1 - 32
- Previous Article
- Table of Contents
- Next Article
Abstract
In Chinese, temporary classifiers form together with classifiers like piàn ‘piece’, tuán ‘something ball-shaped’, gǔ ‘stream or stand’ and pài ‘faction or clique’ a type of classifiers that has both mass and count forms. When occurring with the determinative quantifier yī to create a structure conveying the part-related reading, they appear in the ‘mass form’ (i.e., amount classifiers), but the ‘count form’ (i.e., number classifiers) when occurring with a genuine numeral. That is, the nominal mass/count distinction in Chinese is reflected at the classifier level as the distinction between the amount classifier and the number classifier. Moreover, this distinction is grammatical not ontological.
© 2015 John Benjamins Publishing Company