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The class of numeratives
in Mandarin Chinese comprises measures
such as píng 'bottle' or jīn
'pound' on the one hand, and classifiers
such as běn, zhāng, and tiáo
on the other. The present essay investigates both
the syntactic properties of Chinese numeratives
and the structure of numerative expressions,
i.e. of those expressions in which numeratives
typically occur. It is assumed that in Chinese
the class of numeratives is a separate class of
nominal words. |
Using Integrational Linguistics
as a theoretical background, the essay focuses on
three topics: |
- the syntactic structure of
numerative expressions
- the part-of-speech status of
numeratives, i.e. the position that
numeratives and their subclasses occupy
in the part-of-speech system of Mandarin
Chinese
- the syntactic basis of Chinese noun
classification conceived as a
relationship between classifiers and
certain sets of substantives, so-called
'noun classes'.
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A number of key concepts needed
for describing any numeral classifier language
are formally defined, in particular, a concept of
numeral classifier language that may be
expected to be useful for typological studies. |
The essay is organized as
follows. |
The introductory part of
the essay consists of three sections. Section 1
provides a general introduction. Classifiers and
measures are informally distinguished in Section
2, which also clarifies some basic terminological
points and specifies the basic problems to be
tackled. The general theoretical framework
adopted for the investigation, Integrational
Linguistics, is characterized in Section 3,
emphasizing the general syntactic theory,
Integrational Syntax. |
The main part of the essay is
dedicated to the three topics on which the essay
focuses. Section 4 ("The syntactic structure
of numerative expressions") begins by
identifying four theoretical options for constituent
structures of numerative expressions in
Mandarin Chinese (4.1) and goes on to summarize
the traditional type of analysis for numerative
expressions that construes the numeral+numerative
part of a numerative expression as a modifier of
the substantive part (4.2). This analysis meets
with a number of fundamental problems that lead
to its rejection (4.3). It is demonstrated that
an alternative analysis given in (4.4) either
solves or avoids these problems. Section 4 is
concluded by a solution to another traditional
problem, clarifying the status of demonstratives
in numerative expressions (4.5). |
Section 5 ("The part-of-speech status of
numeratives and substantives") introduces
numeratives and substantives as separate
'substantival' word classes in Mandarin
Chinese (5.1); inquires into the subcategories of
numeratives and substantives and their respective
positions within the word class system of
Mandarin Chinese (5.2); formally defines the key
terms "NUMERATIVE" (5.3) and "combinable"
(5.4); introduces the notion of 'Noun Class
System' (5.5); and defines key concepts
needed for describing numeral classifier
languages (5.6 and 5.7), in particular, the very
concept of numeral classifier language. |
Section 6 ("The systematic basis of 'nc-compatibility'")
introduces the notion of 'noun class
compatibility' as a relation between numeral
classifiers and collective nouns (6.1); discusses
the question of a semantic basis for this
notion (6.2); and demonstrates its syntactic
basis (6.3), for which two theoretical
options can be considered (6.4 and 6.5), one of
which is finally chosen (6.6). This subsection
also contains a diagram that summarizes the
overall view of the part-of-speech system of
Mandarin Chinese developed in this essay. |
Section 7 contains a summary of all
major results of the essay and outlines some
problems that continue to be open in the study of
numeratives and noun classes. |
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