A Study Of Grammaticalization Of The Classifier Construction In English And Chinese

This thesis is concerned with the discussion of grammaticalization of the classifier construction in English and Chinese with a contrastive analysis of data in English and Chinese by means of corpora. This thesis discusses the grammaticalization path of the classifier construction through semantic changes and structural changes. Centering on the degree of grammaticalization, it explores the mechanisms of grammaticalization, motivations of grammaticalization and cognitive reasons of grammaticalization of the classifier construction in English and Chinese. It summarizes the principles of the classifier construction in both languages by comparing the differences and similarities of grammaticalization of them.Through discussion and analysis, this study has reached the following conclusions:(1) The similarities of grammaticalization of the classifier construction in English and Chinese: The classifier constructions in both languages go through the similar path of grammaticalization from macro perspective: The classifier construction in English and Chinese derives from the nominal construction or the verbal construction. The degree of grammaticalization of the classifier construction in two languages experiences from the lowest degree to higher degree, and then to the highest degree; The paths of grammaticalization of the classifier construction in both English and Chinese are concerned about the semantic changes and structural changes; The mechanisms of reanalysis and analogy motivate grammaticalization of the classifier construction in two languagues and the motivations of metaphor, metonymy and highly frequent repetition enable grammaticalization of the classifier construction in two languages to take place.(2) The differences of grammaticalization of the classifier construction in English and Chinese: The classifier construction in Chinese is more typical than that in English, and the degree is higher than that of English. The classifier construction in English is less than that in Chinese. The degree of classifier construction in English is as high as that in the Qin and Han dynasties on the whole.(3) The reason why grammaticalization of classifier constructions in English and Chinese is different is : It is the different grammatical system that causes the different degree of grammaticalization. The article and the plural form of noun undertake the function of the quantification in English while there are no articles and the concept of countable noun and uncountable noun in Chinese. The classifier undertakes the function of the quantification.