A Study On Chinese Measure-words

Measure-word is one characteristic of Chinese and Sino-Tibetan. Whatcognitive law should be followed when one is to acquire and apply measure-word isan important and difficult point. To solve these problems is of great theroical andpractical significance for studying Chinese, teaching in Chinese and teachingChinese for overseas students.The paper contains seven parts in all.Introduction: Through reviewing the literature on Chinese measure-word, wefind that the systemic research in the generation mechanism of measure-word, theevolution of structure type and function of measure-word, the substitute ofmeasure-word family and the acquisition of measure-word is still not enough.Therefore, based on the cognitive linguistic theory, system-function linguisticstheory and Hierarchical Network of Concepts (HNC) built for manualintelligence，combining of general history research and application research,Chinese research and application, quantitative and qualitative research respectively,the paper selects over120measure words, which are sorted into3types according tothe characteristics of cognition and function. The paper studies the systemicdiscrepancy of the selected measure words and its reasons, and the concepthierarchical network developed by measure words, nouns verbs as well, and thematch laws of the measure words, nouns and verbs are also studied here.Part one and part two both include the diachronic match of Chinesenoun-measure-word and nouns from three aspects. Firstly, in a reconstructedcognition context, the function using measure words to measure nouns results from the metonymy of measure-words prototype, which is interfered by cognitive motives.Metonymy is composed of substantiality metonymy, figure metonymy, and structuremetonymy, which create substantiality measure-word, figure measure-word, andstructure measure-word respectively. Secondly, after measuring nouns, the extensityquantities of measure-words prototype map the object quantities of nouns. Butmeasure-words prototypes just metonymy the expression mode of substantivequantity, which is exactly express by numeral. Thirdly, the substitution ofnoun-measure-word is restricted by the association relationship between differentcategories.Part three includes the multidimensional study of noun-measure-word structure.The paper classes noun-measure-word structure into self-sufficiency structure andnonself-sufficiency structure and analyze its diachronic change. The analysis showsthat the relaxedlization degree of noun-measure-word is less than nonself-sufficiency,which may be restricted by both the structure change of nouns and theverb-complement structure development. In addition, to study the grammar hierarchychanges of noun-measure-word acting as various grammar components by adoptinggrammar hierarchy theory. The result finds that the structures and functions ofnoun-measure-word have changed from its preliminary predicate to attribute. Finally,the paper makes an analysis of the pragmatics function. It shows that self-sufficiencystructure and nonself-sufficiency one are different in topics and information focuses.Part four contains the research on diachronic match of verb-measure-word. Tobegin with, based on the perspective of the modern Chinese verb-measure-wordphenomena, the paper made its track of diachronic change clear. Based on it, thepaper explores the metonymy and metaphor mechanism during the generation anddevelopment of verb-measure-word by taking the analysis methods ofnoun-measure-word from three sides. The function using verb-measure-words tomeasure verbs depends on the substantial metonymy mechanism. Usingverd-measure-word to measure the quantities of verbs rely on projection mappingsthat are based on the relativities between categories. Moreover, the substitution of verb-measure-word is based on the restrictions of the association relationshipbetween different categories.Part five includes the study of verb-measure-word structure. Taking the sameway mentioned in part three. The paper analyzes the diachronic change ofverb-measure-word self-sufficiency structure and nonself-sufficiency structure. Theanalysis shows that the relaxedlization degree of verb-measure-word self-sufficiencystructure and nonself-sufficiency are almost at the same level. But they are deferentin pragmatic function. The construction meaning of verb-measure-wordself-sufficiency structure lies in portraying and judging of action quantities, andverb-measure-word is the focus information. The construction meaning ofverb-measure-word nonself-sufficiency structure lies in the describing of completedaction as a whole, and verb-measure-word is not the focus information. The analysisshows that verb-measure-word advantage grammatical hierarchy is complement andadverb.Part six contains applied research on measure word. Through analysises ofdiachronic substitution of different measure words, we find that the typical measurewords in different times belong to the basic category of that time. On the contrary,the non-typical measure words in deferent times belong to the non-basic category ofthat time. Nouns and verbs modified by measure words have the same traits. Underthe influences of changing categorilization, concept-net-hierarchy is also changing,which is one of the underlying reasons of the substitution of measure word family.This concept-net-hierarchy structure also reflects the category attributes of measurewords, and creates unusual match of measure words, and results in the macrocosmacquisition mode of Chinese measure word. So, we build up a function of Chinesemeasure word acquisition, and test it.