Study On The Matching Relationship Between Nouns And Classifiers In Chinese

The paper, based on the data bank of the collocation between some nouns and classifiers, has discussed the matching rules between nouns and classifiers. Usually the reasons of the collocation between nouns and classifiers are not known; therefore, the paper is to offer some clues and bases to the discovering of the matching rules between them. The paper has five chapters. First, the research fruits the pioneers have made on Chinese classifiers are summarized. Second, the author, combining the perspectives of grammar, semantics and pragmatics, further divides the classifiers. With the criteria of the sub-levels of classifiers, the nouns then have been accordingly further studied. This part is to analyze the requirements that each sub-classifier and each sub-noun asks for to its collocation object, to sum up the influence factors deciding on these requirements and to obtain its matching rules. The paper also points out the fact that the collocation relationship between nouns and classifiers is relatively stable. An unusual collocation between nouns and classifiers may emerge, from the considering of either rhetoric or pragmatics, by the flexible unusual use of a classifier. What should be mentioned is that this unusual collocation between nouns and classifiers does not mean the collocation is not standard and does not mean a free choice of a classifier. Since the collocation between nouns and classifiers inevitably mentions the collocation form, the paper last has listed, with the help of the examples, the possible collocation forms of the collocation between nouns and classifiers. In addition, an appendix of the data bank of the collocation between some nouns and classifiers, is added to the paper for a better presentation of the paper.