"Ming Lu" Quantifier Research

As one of the important features of Chinese,classifiers act as vital component for investigating the stages of Chinese.Classifiers had already appeared as early as in the Oracle period,whose system continued to perfect itself during the period of Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties.You Ming Lu is one of the most outstanding notes novels of supernatural tales during the period of Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties. You Ming Lu could be a rival to Sou Shen Ji,and is important corpus for the study of Chinese during Middle Age.So far,only a few of studies of the language in You Ming Lu can be found,while there is no specialized study of the classifiers in You Ming Lu.For the first time,this thesis investigates into the classifiers in You Ming Lu as exhaustively as possible.In order to provide reference of corpus and theory for research,this thesis summarizes its grammatical and semantic features,as well as its evolutionary patterns on the basis of diachronic and synchronous comparative study.This thesis is divided into three parts.The first part is the introduction,which mainly focuses on introducing its writing process,literary status,version,etc;analysing the existing methods of classification of Chinese classifiers,so as to define the classification standards of this thesis.The second part is the core part,which includes three chapters.Chapter One investigates exhaustively into the74classifiers in You Ming Lu,and gives a thorough description of the classifiers in You Ming Lu.Chapter Two summarizes the use of classifiers in You Ming Lu,and elaborates on the grammatical and semantic features of the noun-classifiers and verb-classifiers respectively.By making vertical comparisons of the classifiers in You Ming Lu with the classifiers existing in the periods of Pre-Qin,Han,the Five Dynasties of Tang,and Modern China from such three aspects as inheritance,elimination and innovation.Chapter Three reveals the critical roles of the classifiers in You Ming Lu,and that existed during the period of Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties in its long process of development and improvement.Then,by making horizontal comparisons of classifiers in You Ming Lu with the classifiers existing in the same era,and by looking at the general characteristics of the classifiers during the periods of Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasties through the investigation of classifiers in You Ming Lu,this chapter makes necessary complements to the dynastic studies done by people of former times.The third part is the conclusion,which summarizes the full-text content,and reveals its important effect on the research of Chinese classifiers.The classifiers in You Ming Lit more obviously reflected the characteristics of the classifiers existed during the periods of Wei Jin Southern and Northern Dynasty.Noun-classifiers were more developed than verb-classifiers,and the number of verb-classifiers was less than that of noun-classifiers,while homologous verb-classifiers were not generated yet;the grammatical and semantic features of classifiers in You Ming Lu were more obvious;the overlapping of classifiers had emerged,but were limited to the form of "AA";Polyphony classifiers also came into being during this period,but its quantity remained in small portion.Most of them were derived from the exterior Buddhist terms.The division of classifier system became increasingly detailed,and demonstrated a unique phenomenon when new and old classifiers alternated and coexisted in the transitional period.