A Checking Theory Of The Nominal Phrase With "-Men"

In this thesis, we investigate the fundamental nature of nouns in classifier languages like Mandarin Chinese in the context of plurality-related phenomena. Languages are divided into classifier language and non-classifier language due to the using of classifier. The count/mass distinction, plural marker have been a heated topic in Chinese linguists since the 1950s. With regard to this linguistic phenomenon, many linguists have analyzed it and made some reasonable explanations with different theories, especially Chierchia (1998),Yen-Hui Audrey Li (1999), Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng & Rint Sybesma (1999), Wen Binli & Chen Zongli (2002). They have made a great success in accounting for the nominal phrase. Since nouns in classifier languages cannot be directly quantified, it has been widely suggested and accepted in the literature that they must be dealt with in parallel with mass nouns in non-classifier languages, which also cannot be directly combined with numerals. Chierchia (1998) has claimed that all nouns in classifier languages are inherently mass nouns, whereas nouns in non-classifier can be divided into mass and count nouns. Since all nouns in classifier languages are mass nouns, Chierchia claims, it follows that plural markings of nouns in this type of language are absent or if present at all, inert. It further follows that classifiers are needed to license numerals, since numeral cannot otherwise occur with mass nouns. Differently put, there exists a correlation between the availability of classifier and the lack of plural morphology in classifier languages. Contrary to Chierchia, we will show that the negative correlation between classifiers and plural makings is superficies; further more, there is no fundamental distinction with respect to the nature of nouns between classifier languages and non-classifier languages.This thesis makes an attempt to propose a new method within the framework of Feature Checking. Firstly, the feature checking and Nominal Feature Checking will be introduced in detail, and the theory assumes that the nominal phrase has its own feature, and the checkee can be checked by its checker. Secondly, the author detailedly analyzes the process of the Nominal feature checking in the nominal phrase of Mandarin Chinese. Because of the difference between English-type plural morpheme and Chinese-type plural morpheme, the author proposes parameterization. Finally, the author explains the ungrammatical phenomena within the framework of Nominal Feature Checking. As for the analysis of the nature of nominal phrase, the author adopts the Feature Checking theory (Chomsky 1995), the enumerable noun (Dik1989, craig 1992) to account for this special phenomenon.And this thesis proposes that the countability is on classifier and gives a reasonable explanation of the nominal phrase with plural marker–men. Therefore, we can conclude that the nominal phrase in Mandarin Chinese has the count/mass distinction. With the parameterization, the nominal phrase in Mandarin Chinese can be analyzed under the framework of Nominal Feature Analysis. We found that the classifier-related nominal phenomena are not a language-particular matter, but a language-universal one.However, this thesis also has its own limitation: this thesis only studied the nominal phrase's nature in Mandarin Chinese without applying it to other languages. Therefore, the further research on the nature of Mandarin Chinese should be continued.There are five chapters in this thesis:Chapter one introduces the value, the purpose and the arrangement of this thesis.Chapter two presents a review of the literature on the previous major studies of classifier and plural form. And with the review, we find the valuable area to do research.Chapter three tries to introduce the'Nominal Feature Analysis', which is a feature-based analytic mechanism for dealing with nominal structures. And it shows the implication in non-classifier languages.Chapter four does the research on Chinese nominal phrase. It will be also shown how this feature checking mechanism filters in and out various nominal structures in more details.Chapter five makes a conclusion of the thesis.