The Research On The Noun Classifiers Of The Stone Inscriptions Of Wei, Jin And Southern And Northern Dynasties

As unearthed documents,the stone inscriptions of Wei,Jin and southern and northern dynasties is the first-hand information to study on the Chinese classifiers for its advantages of well-dated and reliable records.The contents related to religion, funeral,military and other fields,and its language features show the coexistence of written and colloquial characteristics.In progress of Chinese,it’s the peak period and the key stage for the classifiers’ development.The classifiers are one of the most important futures in Sino-Tibetan Language Family.And noun classifiers are produced the earliest with the largest number and the most abundant characteristics as part of the classifier System.The predecessors have made great results in the stone inscriptions and the classifiers,but the research on the noun classifiers of the stone inscriptions of Wei, Jin and southern and northern dynasties is almost blank.In this paper,the noun classifiers of the stone inscriptions of Wei,Jin and southern and northern dynasties have been systematically investigated for the first time to fill the gap for the research on the Chinese classifiers.It also shows the value of the stone inscriptions on the chinese classifiers research.What’s more important, Wei,Jin and southern and northern dynasties has been established a special position in the history of the chinese classifiers.As detailed as possible,we described the applications of63noun classifiers.A clear picture of the noun classifiers in Wei,Jin and southern and northern dynasties has been showed through studying the meaning,source,the times of occurrences and the application scope.The evidence of the combination of nouns and noun classifiers has been studied by using the theories of lexicology,sementics, cognitive linguistics and relevant research,combined with the social and cultural factors.The progress of the application division of the classifiers and the increasing improvement of the classifiers system have been showed by studying the track of the noun classifiers’ development from Wei,Jin dynasties to Sui,Tang dynasties in two different angles of the noun classifiers and the nouns,compared with the stone inscriptions of Sui,Tang and five dynasties.By researching on the noun classifiers of the stone inscriptions of Wei,Jin and southern and northern dynasties,we found that classifiers like ’yao(腰),bian(邊), fan(幡),hu(�'),qiu(丘),zun(尊),dui(隧)’emerged newly at Wei,Jin and southern and northern dynasties and ’bian(邊),hu(�'),qiu(丘)’ were unique to the stone inscriptions.During the several hundreds of years from Wei,Jin to Sui,Tang,the application of some classifiers had been changed.The application scope of ’tiao(條),hui(會),qun(群),duan(段)’ became more and more widely,but’mei(枚), qu(區),shou(首) ju(具)’were quite the contrary.The classifiers Combined with the same nouns were also developed further.The special classifiers like ’hu(�')’was replaced by’jie(结)’.The shared classifiers like’qu躯),qiu(丘),qu(區),suo(所)’ obviously showed the tendency of differentiations and replacement.The general classifiers like ’ju(具)’preferred to be replaced by’fu(副)’.In our research,the state of the noun classifiers was complete showed in Wei,Jin and southern and northern dynasties.New classifiers were discovered,especially which were unique to stone inscriptions.The valuable evidences which couldn’t find in other documents,played a key role in the time and property determination of the classifiers.Some existed conclusions have been corrected and amended,which can supplement the deficiencies in the received sources and fill in the gaps in our knowledge of Chinese classifiers.New materials were provided for dictionary,compensating for the lack of words,documentary evidence and meaning items.In a word,the stone inscriptions of Wei,Jin and southern and northern dynasties,which have great value for the research on the middle ages Chinese classifiers,deserve further investigation.