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book: Classifier Structures in Mandarin Chinese
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Classifier Structures in Mandarin Chinese

  • Niina Ning Zhang
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 2013
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About this book

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 provides analyses for various uses of classifiers in
    Mandarin Chinese: in numeral expressions, in quantifier expressions,
    in reduplicative forms, and in compounds.
  • The study challenges certain widely-adopted assumptions about the
    roles of classifiers with respect to the count-mass contrast and the
    singular-plural contrast.
  • It explains the formal contrasts between languages with and without
    numeral classifiers.

Author / Editor information

Niina Ning Zhang, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan.

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Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
May 28, 2013
eBook ISBN:
9783110304992
Hardcover published on:
May 21, 2013
Hardcover ISBN:
9783110303742
Paperback published on:
June 20, 2016
Paperback ISBN:
9783110488050
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Front matter:
12
Main content:
319
Illustrations:
40
Tables:
80
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