A Comparative Study Of Noun Classifier Between Minnan Dialect And Madarin

Dialect is a treasure trove of linguistic research. As an important sub-dialect of Chinese, Minnan dialect often known as the ancient Chinese "living fossil". The research of Minnan dialect had a lot achievement, but still lack of systematic research in classifiers. This paper researches the classifiers in Minnan dialect based on the representive point—Xiamen dialect, aims to find the usage and characteristics of classifiers in Minnan dialect, by collecting, surveying and classifying materials, in order to provide a reference for future study in compiling learning materials and dictionary, popularizing mandarin and researching of Chinese’s dialects and classifier.This paper is divided into five chapters, of which the second chapter to the fourth chapter is the main part of the thesis. Through the comparative analysis, this paper argues that the noun’s classifier in the Minnan dialect is a particular and flexible system. It’s not less than mandarin in total amount, and more clearly in usage. There are nearly a third of the special words in Minnan dialect that is absent in mandarin. The source of words reflects the characteristics of keeping ancient meaning and borrowing foreign words in this dialect’s vocabulary. The choice of classifier reflected the living conditions and cultural practices of Minnan region. Therefore, the paper also focus on the analysis of cultural perspective. In grammar, the situation of compulsive usage of classifier in Minnan dialect is more than in mandarin, and the freedom is less in the dialect. There are two aspect of performance. On one hand, the ability in combination with other parts of speech is better, on the other hand, the overlap forms is limited. In addition, there are different structures and forms in the way of quantify in the Minnan dialect.