A Comparative Study On Classifiers Of Chinese And Thai

Classifiers are generally categorized into noun classifiers and verb classifiers. The former group is subdivided into individual classifiers and measure words. Measure words are available in nearly every language whereas individual classifiers only exist in Sino-Tibetan languages. With the emergence of linguistic typology and cognitive linguistics, including the deepened study on grammaticalization, the uniqueness of individual classifiers has made them one of the hot research topics in recent decades. As Chinese and Thai are both Sino-Tibetan languages which contain plenty of classifiers, a linguistic study on similarities and differences of individual classifiers in both languages may linguistically reveal their substantive characteristics and provide references for teaching application. This study was mainly on the comparison and contrast of the functions of individual classifiers in both Chinese and Thai with the exploration of their original, classification and syntactic functions. Cognitive linguistics was applied to: explore the relationship between their semantic categories and national ways of thinking and cognition in the framework of cognitive linguistics; investigate the grammaticalization processes of individual classifiers of the two languages; and finally analyze the errors that are made in the use of Chinese individual classifiers by Thai students based on questionnaire survey and the Database System of Chinese Interlanguage. Moreover, the study also revealed the causes of errors through the application of second language acquisition theories, and at the same time, put forwards some effective strategies in teaching Chinese classifiers to Thai students. The study revealed five innovative findings as in follows.1. New ways in comparative study of classifiers in Chinese and Thai were introduced. Synchronically and diachronically, this study applied theories of cognitive linguistics to conduct a dynamic study on the individual classifiers in both Chinese and Thai languages. The new issues that are not available in a single language were discovered and the substantive characteristics of individual classifiers were also revealed.2. Based on synchronical, diachronical and Zhuang-Tai etymological materials, the formation and development of "copy noun classifiers", or "echo classifiers" were explored, showing that "copy noun classifiers" are not originally emerged in Thai language but were later developed after the usage of "general classifiers".3. This examination applied prototype theory and theories of metaphor and metonymy to illustrate the development of semantic categories of Chinese and Thai classifiers and their relevant national ways of thinking and cognition reflected therein.4. This study applied the concept of "bounded / unbounded" in the cognitive linguistics to discover the grammaticalization processes of the general noun classifiers of Chinese and Thai, as well as the path and motivation to develop them into structural auxiliary words.5. Based on questionnaire survey and the Database System of Chinese Interlanguage, errors made in the use of Chinese individual classifiers by the Thai students had been analyzed and the causes of those errors were identified through the application of relevant theories on second language acquisition. Simultaneously, some effective strategies in teaching Chinese classifiers to the Thai students are suggested.